Fleeting Voices. Preserving Acoustic Heritage in the Archives and the Arts
Experimental conference
October 1–3, 2025
Speaking, singing and using one’s voice for communication is one of the oldest cultural techniques. And hearing is one of the earliest human senses, which we actively pursue and exercise already as a foetus. Since the invention of storing and reproducing voices on sound carriers, the ephemeral level of the acoustic has taken on a materiality outside the human body. This has made it possible to keep the voice for individual and cultural memories. These techniques of saving and remembering are connected to the desire to hold on to the voice as a coveted object and to preserve it for the future – for the family, the “home”, for collecting and “scientific purposes”. Simultaneously, they reveal the paradox of the material fixation of the ephemeral. Every time we replay a sound recording, we are dependent on listening and the fleeting nature of sound as its fundamental character, which raises the question: What does it mean to capture a voice on a sound carrier? What does this mean culturally, epistemologically, technically and politically both in terms of tangible and intangible cultural heritage?
Fleeting Voices discusses voices and their sound carriers as a subject of heritage studies, materials science, media theory, art and cultural history. It explores the specifics of acoustic heritage, the agency of (various – also human) sound carriers in archives or artworks and the voice as a medium. It focuses on the voice and the acoustic sphere as an inherently ephemeral and intangible object of cultural heritage research. At the same time, it addresses recorded voices as highly material objects and still underestimated subjects of heritage science or art history.
Venue
University of Applied Arts Vienna – Expositur Rustenschacherallee
Rustenschacherallee 2–4, 1020 Vienna
Concept
Katrin Abromeit, Laura Bohnenblust, Eva Kapeller-Hallama
Registration
Please register for the conference here!
Organising Institutions
Department Media Theory – University of Applied Arts Vienna
Phonogrammarchiv – Austrian Academy of Sciences
Cultural Heritage Studies – University of Vienna
supported by Support Art and Research – University of Applied Arts Vienna
Scientific Committee
Nadia Al-Bagdadi, Clemens Apprich, Ricarda Denzer, Noémie Etienne, Elena Gómez Sánchez, Kerstin Klenke, Simon Kunz, Thomas Y. Levin, Thomas Macho, Stephan Puille, Dirk Rupnow, Jens Schröter
Funding
Austrian Academy of Sciences, University of Applied Arts Vienna, University of Vienna
Participants
Jean-Hugues Chenot & Jean-Etienne Noiré, Natascha Muhic, Christoph Freidhöfer, Rozina Pátkai, Isabel Frey, Senta Hirscheider, Cristina Sá Valentim, Hippocrates Cheng, William Carruthers & Fayrouz Kaddal, Lina Ounissi, Johann Hinterstoisser, Carmen Rodriguez Godino, Barbora Benetková, Friederike Waentig, Kristina Pia Hofer, Luc Marraffa, Ferenc János Szabó, Lauren Walker, Jean-Baptiste Masson, Heidi Fial, Andrea Gunnlaugsdóttir, Claudia Lomoschitz, Crystal Wall, Julia Lajta-Novak, Claire Palzer, Shefali Banerji, Rachel Bolle-Debessay, Laetitia Kozlova, Naima Hassan, Gabriele Jutz
Keynotes
MADEYOULOOK, Thomas Y. Levin, Thomas Macho
Contact
fleeting.voices@uni-ak.ac.at