Editorial: Socially engaged sound practices

Abstract

[...]active criticality by the author–artist pursues a conceptual move beyond the routine notion of participation and collaboration understood as positive forces in and of themselves – towards more inherently (self-)critical sound practices and studies of such works. [...]while the articles are evidently interlinked in addressing this broader theme of social engagement through sound, the collection is decidedly diverse: in interpretations of ‘sociality’;and in addressing distinct areas and eras of sound practices – the contemporary, canonical and hereto less-heard. Considering this issue as a single entity, the authors thus become united in their aim to diversify the conversation, in decentralising theoretical approaches to the subject matter and in the positive inclusion of a wider variety of voices, experiences, sounding bodies and attitudes to listening. The author reflects on the ethics of working with vulnerable groups in such a way and towards developing practices through which the auditory experiences, particularly of an auraldiverse participants, may be documented, represented and understood in a reciprocal and egalitarian manner through ‘dialogic situations of companion listening, discussion and mutual learning’.