‘Explode All Our Metaphors’ – On the Potential of Sound in Media and Audience Studies. An Interview with Martin Barker

Abstract

In this interview Martin Barker discusses his recent studies concerning audience experiences of organised sound. Complicating a multi-sensory approach, he engages with a number of contested notions in the field, such as liveness or visualisation, and suggests that empirical work is necessary to better understand what they mean for the audiences – but methodologically, such empirical work is not without challenges. Reviewing a number of interdisciplinary publications, Barker argues that research of sound can help open up the field of audience studies, but to do that, we need a careful, historical analysis of sound audiences across time and place.