"Audio Documentary"

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Steven Hammer’s undergraduate course titled Audio Design and Production focuses on examining and creating an array of sonic work. For the final project of the class, Hammer asks students to compose a 45–60-minute audio documentary that addresses the theme of “silenced voices in Philadelphia.” Working in teams, students do research, collect field recordings and interviews, and decide on how to structure and edit their documentaries. Community-driven fieldwork is an excellent way to incorporate sonic practices and digital composing techniques into the classroom, and Hammer’s collaborative audio documentary is an example worth emulating. This assignment also presents an opportunity for students to read about and discuss the implications of using sound recording to represent others, particularly when it comes to representations of race and class. Thus, this project would pair especially well with readings like Jennifer Stoever’s “Splicing the Sonic Color-Line” and Jonathan Stone’s “Listening to the Sonic Archive.