Methods Seminars are in-depth, interdisciplinary investigations of a particular problem or theme. These seminars focus on ways of knowing the world characteristic of the disciplines represented in the seminar, such that the forms or methods of investigation are as important as the subject matter itself.

Plato once argued that written events are less primary than the spoken word and that representing an absent voice in writing can only lead to problems of authority, identity, verification and knowledge. We will ask how this idea has been both promoted and critiqued by musical practice and discourses surrounding the recording of audio events since the phonograph. We will consider early responses to the phonograph, asking how those responses have changed with available technology and media. We will explore a myriad of historical, philosophical, literary, and theoretical responses to the existence of recorded sound and sonic practices including, but not limited to, radio, cinema, ethnography, field recordings, musique concr