William Dougherty

Since the advent of audio recording technology in the late 19th-century, there has been a gradual and fundamental shift in the way that music is conceived. Rather than an activity or a process, music has increasingly become a commodity—something that can be accrued and stored for later enjoyment. But the ways in which musical works are seemingly “captured” conceals the technological and cultural filtering at the heart of the recording process. It also erases the people, places, and cultures of actual music-making. In this talk, William Dougherty will share some of his most recent work which engages with questions: What are the traces that remain on musical recordings, if not the music itself? And what can these traces tell us about the people that we hear on the other end?

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This lecture series is generously supported by: