Official project launch at the 2023 UNESCO Week of Sound in Edinburgh

The research project Sonic Conditions of Detention will officially launch on Thursday 19 October 2023 with an evening of events during the first UNESCO Week of Sound in Edinburgh.

UNESCO established the Week of Sound in order to draw attention to the importance of sound in our lives, including the impact of our sounding environment on our health and wellbeing. This is therefore the perfect platform to launch a project that aims to promote understanding and awareness of how sound impacts on those deprived of their liberty.

The launch events start at 5:15 pm with a talk by Dr James Parker (Melbourne Law School). James’s pioneering work on on the relationship between law, sound and listening intersects at many points with the concerns of the project. At the launch event, he will speak about the sound of hotel detention, as documented in the project ‘where are you today’ by the Manus Recording Project Collective. This event is hosted in conjunction with the Global Justice Academy at Edinburgh Law School.

The evening continues with the concert Behind Bars: Music from Places of Detention, curated by SCD project founder M. J. Grant in conjunction with the musicians. The concert features music and songs created in situations of detention that provide testimony on the sonic conditions of that detention. The programme includes Yiddish songs from the Shoah, sonic testimony from the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and music by Hans Gál, a Jewish refugee from the Nazi who was interned as an enemy alien in Britain in the 1940s, and went on to become a lecturer in music at the Reid School of Music and one of the founders of the Edinburgh Festival.

We look forward to inviting you to these events, both of which are free. Places can be booked by following the links below.