CFP: Aural Tricks and Sonic Treats, 9/1/11

Halloween Goth DJ Set in Portugal by bricolage.108

Rattling chains. Squeaking bats. Moaning wind. Creaking doors. And screams, screams, and more screams.  As the only holiday for which people regularly purchase “sound effects” tapes, Halloween is ripe for a sound studies take.  As luck would have it, one of Sounding Out!’s coveted guest slots falls on October 31st this year. We are celebrating this uncanny coincidence with an open “Call for Posts” around the topic of sound and Halloween.

Use the following questions to help get your creative juices flowing, but feel free to investigate the topic from any angle you’d like.

·      Why are certain types of sonic practice so key to setting the vibe for Halloween celebrations—from haunted houses to corn mazes, trick-or-treating runs to costume parades?

·      How and why have particular sounds become Halloween conventions? How are these sounds raced? gendered?

·      How does the aural experience of Halloween differ across the globe? How has it changed over time?

·      How does sound mediate our understandings of death, particularly in rituals of remembrance around Halloween like Dia De Los Muertos?

·      More broadly, what is the relationship between sound and fear? Sound and terror?

We welcome research-based posts and posts examining aural experience through a first-person narrative style; many of our posts mix both. We also welcome ideas for podcasts as well as artistic posts that use the blog format to create an original audio-visual experience.