Dear all,

Currents in Electronic Literacy (ISSN 1524-6493) solicits submissions
related to the theme below. Submissions are due on Monday, January 10,
2011.

Spring 2011 issue: Writing with Sound

Today we live in a society defined–in many senses, and by almost all
the connotations associated with the word as well–by the word
‘current’…. The old hierarchies of linear thought, sublime (and
sublimated!) engagements with art, poetry, music, science, and history
are no longer needed to do the ideological work now conducted again
along the lines of ‘current.’ (Miller 32)

This call for projects begins with a sample, with the echoing of a
familiar call to listen to a new kind of logic. The sample comes from
Rhythm Science by Paul Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid),
who encourages us to go with the flow, to find a good mix, and to
listen for new ways of thinking and linking. In conjunction with
Miller’s appearance as part of the Digital Writing and Research Lab’s
annual Speaker Series, we are excited to announce that the Spring 2011
issue of Currents will focus on writing with sound.

The issue will open with a compelling radio piece by Avital Ronell in
which she–along with the flute accompanying her–insists that
Nietzsche was a DJ. Remixing, it seems, is everywhere. For some time
now, sampling and remixing has been a powerful metaphor for writing in
digital culture; indeed, the College Composition and Communication
Convention took remixing as its theme in 2010. The challenge now is to
literalize the metaphor, to allow audio technologies to enter into the
field’s descriptions of “the writing process(es),” which will change
not just the way we think about and teach writing, but our processes,
and so our “products,” as well. In order to encourage and embrace
these changes, Currents invites—along with traditional academic
submissions—audio essays, podcasts, oral histories, interviews, and
other audio recorded genres, as well as webpages, videos, animations,
slide presentations, etc., that address sound-related issues. Videos
may be uploaded to YouTube.com and shared with
currents@dwrl.utexas.edu. (Other video hosting sites may be used.
However, YouTube.com meets more accessibility standards than sites
like Vimeo.) Audio may be uploaded to SoundCloud.com and shared with
currents@dwrl.utexas.edu

. Both YouTube and SoundCloud allow for private sharing. During the
submission process, please make your audio and video materials
available to a limited audience. Audio/video/visual submissions should
also include a 500-word document explicating method and performance.

Some potentially interesting lines of inquiry include but are by no
means limited to the following:
• How does the mixing of audio recording and writing create new
genres? How do soundscapes and text work together?
• How do technical instrumentalities, such as, the materials used to
record sounds affect the message? Can sound ever be virtual?
• What have we not heard by focusing our attention on the printed
page? How can teaching with sound revitalize the rhetorical canons
(especially memory and delivery), as well as the issue of “voice”?
• What roles do silence and accessibility play in the discussion of
“voice”? What does “voice” mean for deaf and hard of hearing
individuals as students, professors and authors? How can new
technologies and pedagogies help educators meet the goal of
providing direct and uninhibited language communication access to
curriculum? How can we listen to the “oral” histories,
poems, songs, and stories that belong to the signing Deaf community
and Deaf culture?
• How does the practice of remixing change the way we think about
literacy?
• Multimedia encourages a shift in roles from writer to
producer–what are the implications of this shift?
• Alphabetic writing and audio recording both begin as inscriptions
on a surface, but in what ways does the waveform of audio
recording differ from alphabetic writing?
• How might workspaces in the world of audio recording change the
way we write?
• Many theorists, rhetoricians, and philosophers have argued in
favor of an “ethics of listening.” What further rhetorical and
pedagogical implications might such an ethics entail?
• Through phonography, audio recording, and writing share a history,
what parts of this history do recorders and writers need to bring
to light, retell, and reimagine?
• Through dictation, writers have written with sound for a variety
of reasons in a multiplicity of social and technological
configurations, not all of which have been mutually beneficial. How
might we imagine a productive dictating relationship that ethically
distributes power?
• From recording for the blind and dyslexic to screen readers, sound
reproduction has often been used to extend our (sense)abilities.
What kinds of dictation, transcription, reading, and writing tools
are on the horizon of assistive technology?
• As the tools and techniques for capturing and storing literacy
narratives and oral histories proliferate, we increase our ability
to build and study archives of audio material from many different
cultures. What literal and virtual spaces are shared by fields such
as sound studies, ethnomusicology, rhetoric and literature? What
are the risks and benefits of building and studying archives? Who
might be the secret beneficiaries?
• In a classroom setting, how might the use of sound recordings
introduce students to the affective and emotional textures of
historical experience? In other words, how might sound influence
students’ understanding of historical context?
• In terms of both pedagogy and research, how might we use sound to
convey intangibles such as Barthes’ “grain of the voice”? What
other kinds of intangible, ephemeral, or otherwise ghostly affects
and ideas are better captured through sound rather than the written
word?

All submissions should adhere to MLA style guidelines for citations
and documentation. Submissions should state any technical requirements
or limitations. Currents in Electronic Literacy reserves all
copyrights to published articles and requires that all of its articles
be housed on its Web server. It is the policy of Currents that all
accepted contributions must meet Section 508 accessibility standards
(e.g., captioning for video and transcripts for audio). While all
Currents articles are accessible, readers are advised that these same
articles may contain links to other Web sites that do not meet
accessibility guidelines.

Please direct all submissions and questions to: currents@dwrl.utexas.edu

http://currents.dwrl.utexas.edu/call-for-papers

Via Graham Clarke