Thinking with Sound

"When the outside world is silent, all sorts of sounds can come to mind: inner voices, snippets of past conversations, imaginary debates, beloved and unloved melodies. What should we make of such sonic companions? Thinking with Sound investigates a period when these and other newly perceived aural phenomena prompted a far-reaching debate. Through case studies from Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, it shows that the identification of the auditory cortex in late nineteenth-century neuroanatomy affected numerous academic disciplines across the sciences and humanities. Each now created sound-related concepts that were central to its epistemological agenda. "Thinking with sound" allowed scholars and scientists to bridge between theoretical and practical knowledge, and between academia and the social, aesthetic, and industrial domains. As new recording technologies prompted new scientific questions, so new auditory knowledge found application in industry and the broad aesthetic realm. Through these conjunctions, the book illuminates a moment in time with ramifications for the present and offers a deeper understanding of today's second "acoustic turn" in science and scholarship"--