In the Field 2: Field Recording Conference, July 4–6 2024

Dear field recordists and sound aficionados, an upcoming conference called In the Field 2 may be of interest. We’re excited about this exploration of the themes, issues, and practices of contemporary field recording. Over three days, through peer-reviewed presentations, workshops, and sound and video works, over eighty international presenters will share multi-disciplinary perspectives on practices, methods, and theoretical approaches. 

In the Field 2 will follow on from an international symposium of the same name, which was held in 2013 and organized by Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP), University of the Arts London, in collaboration with the British Library. The earlier event focused on contemporary practices and their historical precedents, how field recordings are distributed, and how they are heard. Across a range of approaches and creative works, the symposium examined both audible and inaudible soundscapes, and mapped urban, rural, and digital fields. 

This year’s event will investigate how the practice of field recording has changed during a decade of escalating ecological, political, social, and financial challenges. Since 2013, the world has changed dramatically, with an exponential rise in ocean temperatures and incidences of wildfires and drought; accelerated glacier loss; the plundering of natural resources via deforestation and ocean mining; violent conflicts – and a global pandemic. 

We have moved into an age of culture wars where political perspectives regarding structural racism, Indigenous rights, gender, and decolonisation have met fierce resistance, disinformation, and denial. In this context, how has and how might the practice of field recording respond? This and many other questions will be answered.

We hope to see you there!

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Where is this taking place?

In person at London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, London, SE1 6SB, UK, and online

For tickets and full details please visit this page
Places are strictly limited, so early booking is recommended.

Indicative panels are as follows (but may be subject to change): 

Thursday July 4 :
‘Hearing Criticalities: Layers in Space and Time’
‘Capturing and Releasing Lifeworlds’
‘Placing the Field’
‘Memory Machines: Inclusion, Ethics, Authenticity’
‘Interference, Energy, Technology, Polyphony’

Friday July 5 (including parallel sessions):
‘Sonic Ethnographies and Subjectivities’
‘Acoustic Witnessing’
‘Audio Channels: Swarms, Streams, Samples, Dummy Heads’
‘The Social Lives of Sounds’
‘Sensory Collaborations’
‘Amplification, Attention, Reception’
‘Listening, Relistening, Reflecting, Resisting’
‘Performing Archives, Hearing Histories, Tuning Technologies’

Saturday July 6 :
‘Concrete and Abstract: Pressing Record and Activating Collections’
‘Localities and Elsewheres’
‘Bodies, Care and Ghosts’

A workshop programme and a listening room and video- screening room will also be available throughout the event.