MUSIC, NATURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES

An Ecomusicological Symposium

Tuesday, May 12, 2015, 10:00–17:00

University of Turku, Sirkkala Campus, Kaivokatu 12
Hovi Lecture Hall

PROGRAMME:

10.00 Opening words

10.15 KEYNOTE: Climate Change, Ecomusicology, and Academic Discourse
Aaron S. Allen (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)

11.15 Coffee

11.30 Fluctuating Guitar Market and Endangered Wood Species
Heikki Uimonen (Sibelius Academy / University of the Arts Helsinki)

12.15 Environmental Themes in Contemporary Finnish Orchestral Music
Susanna Välimäki (University of Turku)

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Sound and Social Space: Sensory Memory and Performative History in Vuonislahti Environment
Helmi Järviluoma (University of Eastern Finland)

14.45 Hydroelectric Power as an Ecomusicological Concern
John Richardson (University of Turku)

15.30 Coffee

15.45 Ecomusicology as Risk Musicology
Juha Torvinen (University of Turku)

16.30 Closing of the symposium

Keynote speaker Aaron S. Allen is Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he is also director of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and his B.A. in music and B.S. in environmental studies from Tulane University. Allen is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, editor of the Ecomusicology Newsletter, and co-editor of the
forthcoming collection Current Directions in Ecomusicology (Routledge). For further info about Dr. Allen and his publications, please visit

The symposium is open to all. WELCOME!

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The symposium is organised by the research project “Music, Nature, and Environmental Crises: A Northern Perspective on Ecocritical Trends in Contemporary Music” (Academy of Finland Research Fellow Juha Torvinen) together with Department of Musicology of the University of Turku, International Institute for Popular Culture (IIPC), and the research project Finnish Music in the 21st Century: The Socio-Cultural Significance of Art Music in the Postmodern World (SUMU).

For more information, please email to Juha Torvinen

Thatcherism and popular culture

Half-day seminar 29.4.2015 Janus-hall (Kaivokatu 12, Turku) 12-16

12.15 Opening words and introduction to Thatcherism, Popular Culture and the 1980s-project

12.30 Fawlty Towers: Sitcom and Pre-Thatcherite Conservatism
Rami Mähkä, Cultural History, University of Turku

13.00 ‘The Sound of Thatcherism on Vinyl’: Spandau Ballet and the ambiguous neo-liberal aspirations in popular music
Kari Kallioniemi, Cultural History, University of Turku

13.30 ‘Our First Lady of Girl Power’: Spice Girls and Margaret Thatcher
Heta Mulari, Cultural History, University of Turku

14.00-14.30 Coffee break

14.30 Thatcherism and the Music Industries
Martin Cloonan, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow

15.00 ‘Where there is discord, may we bring harmony’: Conflict or complementary? UK independent record labels and Thatcherism
Mark Baillie, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow

Symposium: Fashion As Academic Discipline, 6th May

“Fashion As Academic Discipline”

A half-day symposium on fashion studies

Fashion studies is still new to academic research in Finland. This symposium will open up viewpoints to this emerging interdisciplinary field of research. The symposium will show how fashion can be studied, and how important a role fashion plays in the life of individuals, and in understanding culture and the world.

Time: 6th May 2015, 1–5 pm
Location: Arje Scheinin Lecture Hall, Dentalia, Lemminkäisenkatu 2, University of Turku

Program

13.15 Professor Susanna Paasonen:
Welcoming words

13.30 Dr. Annamari Vänskä:
Why Study Fashion?

14.15 Dr. Shaun Cole:
Sexualities, masculinities and fashion studies

15.00 Coffee Break

15.30 Dr. Sophie Woodward:
Materialising fashion: Old jeans, wardrobes and dormant things

16.15 Dr. Agnès Rocamora:
Mediatization and digitization in the field of Fashion

17.00 Closing words

The symposium is organised in collaboration with Media Studies and IIPC – International Institute for Popular Culture, University of Turku.

For more information about the lectures and speakers, see here: http://www.annamarivanska.com/web/index.php?id=398

IIPC Debate 13 April

IIPC Debate 69
Mon 13 April 4-6 pm, Janus Hall (Kaivokatu 12, Turku)
Professor Karen Collins (University of Waterloo, Canada)
Studying Media Sound: Balancing Theory and Practice

KAREN COLLINS is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Interactive Audio at the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She has written many seminal publications on sound and music in games, and on everyday media/technology, exploring how new technologies impact our audio experience. She has studied, for example, sound on smart tables (horizontal computers), mobile phones, video games, and how sound is used in slot machines to manipulate players. She is the author of Game Sound (MIT Press 2008), From Pac-Man to Pop Music (Ashgate 2008), and Playing With Sound (MIT Press 2013). Recently she co-edited (with Bill Kapralos and Holly Tesslerr) The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio (2014). Currently she is writing a book on the history of game sound.

In addition to scholarly work, Karen Collins practices sound design for film and games. In this respect she is best known for her work on Small Sacrifices (for which she was nominated for an award for best sound design at the Underwire Film Festival, 2012) and The Well (an experimental binaural soundtrack, 2014).