Audio Technologies Memory and Cultural Practices Sound Souvenirs
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Edited by Bijsterveld Karin José van Dijck AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS SOUND SOUVENIRS Audio Technologies Memory and Cultural Practices Sound Souvenirs Sound Souvenirs Audio Technologies, Memory and Cultural Practices Edited by Karin Bijsterveld & José van Dijck Amsterdam University Press The series Transformations in Art and Culture is dedicated to the study of histori- cal and contemporary transformations in arts and culture, emphasizing processes of cultural change as they manifest themselves over time, through space, and in various media. Main goal of the series is to examine the effects of globalization, commercialization and technologization on the form, content, meaning and functioning of cultural products and socio-cultural practices. New means of cultural expression, give meaning to our existence, and give rise to new modes of artistic expression, interaction, and community formation. Books in this series will primarily concentrate on contemporary changes in cultural prac- tices, but will always account for their historical roots. The publication of this book has been made possible by grants from the Nether- lands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, and the Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. Cover design: Frederik de Wal, Schelluinen Lay out: Het Steen Typografie, Maarssen ISBN 978 90 8964 132 8 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 058 0 NUR 670 © K. Bijsterveld & J. van Dijck / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2009 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Contents Acknowledgements 7 List of Figures 8 Introduction 11 Karin Bijsterveld and José van Dijck part i • STORING SOUND Chapter One Storing Sound Souvenirs: The Multi-Sited Domestication of the Tape Recorder 25 Karin Bijsterveld and Annelies Jacobs Chapter Two Tape Cassettes and Former Selves: How Mix Tapes Mediate Memories 43 Bas Jansen Chapter Three The Preservation Paradox in Digital Audio 55 Jonathan Sterne part ii • AUDITORY NOSTALGIA Chapter Four Taking Your Favorite Sound Along: Portable Audio Technologies for Mobile Music Listening 69 Heike Weber Chapter Five The Auditory Nostalgia of iPod Culture 83 Michael Bull Chapter Six Performance and Nostalgia on the Oldies Circuit 94 Timothy D. Taylor Chapter Seven Remembering Songs through Telling Stories: Pop Music as a Resource for Memory 107 José van Dijck part iii • TECHNOSTALGIA Chapter Eight Tuning in Nostalgic Wavelengths: Transistor Memories Set To Music 123 Andreas Fickers Chapter Nine Pulled out of Thin Air? The Revival of the Theremin 139 Hans-Joachim Braun Chapter Ten Technostalgia: How Old Gear Lives on in New Music 152 Trevor Pinch and David Reinecke part iv • EARWITNESSING Chapter Eleven Earwitnessing: Sound Memories of the Nazi Period 169 Carolyn Birdsall Chapter Twelve All the Names: Soundscapes, Recording Technology, and the Historical Sensation 182 Ruth Benschop References 199 List of Contributors 216 7 Acknowledgements In 2003, the editors of this book started collaborating in a research group called Sound Technologies and Cultural Practices. The group soon generated interest among a number of our colleagues in Europe and the U.S., which ultimately led to a conference and the initial planning for this volume. During the Sound Souvenirs Workshop held in Maastricht in November 2007, one of the participants identi- fied his “favorite line” in one of the papers. The idea caught on and, soon, others followed suit. Together we built up the communal “tune” that resulted in this book. It is hard to express the enormous pleasure of working with such a stimulat- ing group of scholars. We would like to express our gratitude and our thanks to all of them for their cheerful and insightful contributions. We are also grateful to the companies, institutions, and individuals who gave us permission to reproduce the illustrations. Several contributions to the volume have roots in journal articles or book chapters. Parts of José van Dijck’s chapter were previously published in Critical Studies in Media Communication 25.5 (2006): 357-75. Parts of the third section of Karin Bijsterveld’s and Annelies Ja- cobs’ chapter are from Karin Bijsterveld’s article, “‘What Do I Do with My Tape Recorder…?’ Sound hunting and the sounds of everyday Dutch life in the 1950s and 1960s,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 24.4 (October 2004): 613-634. Ruth Benschop has used some short excerpts from an earlier published article in her chapter. That article is “Memory machines or musical in- struments? Soundscape compositions, recording technologies and reference,” In- ternational Journal of Cultural Studies, 10.4 (2007): 485-502. Our deepest gratitude goes to Margaret Meredith who carefully edited our English. Finally, we would like to thank the Department of Media Studies, Univer- sity of Amsterdam, and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht Uni- versity, for providing financial support for the copyediting, and the Dutch Foun- dation for Scientific Research (NWO) for funding the Sound Technologies and Cultural Practices project from which this book originated. 8 List of Figures Figure 1.1 31 Caption: Philips tape recorder, 1961 Source: Philips Company Archives Courtesy Philips Company Archives Figure 1.2 32 Caption: BASF advertisement, 1960 Source: BASF Aktiengesellschaft Unternehmensarchiv, File “Andrucke 1960,” No. 2 Lackrohstoffe/Magnetophonband Courtesy BASF Figure 1.3 33 Caption: Philips magnetofoon EL 3530, 1953 Source: Philips Company Archives Courtesy Philips Company Archives Figure 1.4 34 Caption: Philips tape recorder, 1963 Source: Philips Company Archives Courtesy Philips Company Archives Figure 1.5 35 Caption: Philips stereo tape recorder 4408, 1967 Source: Philips Company Archives Courtesy Philips Company Archives Figure 1.6 38 Caption: BASF archiving card, 1963 Source: BASF Aktiengesellschaft Unternehmensarchiv, File P. 908.1. Courtesy BASF Figure 1.7 38 Caption: BASF Bandlängenuhr/Spielzeitanzeiger Source: BASF Aktiengesellschaft Unternehmensarchiv Courtesy BASF 9 Figure 4.1 72 Caption: “Into the great outdoors – with Grundig travel radios,” early advertisement for the Grundig portable radio Source: Funkschau No. 12 (1951): 237. Courtesy Grundig Figure 4.2 73 Caption: Advertisement showing the multiple use options of the portable radio, Graetz advertisement, 1963 Source: Leaflet “Frohe Fahrt mit Graetz,” Archives Deutsches Museum, File No. FS 00214611 Courtesy Deutsches Museum Figure 8.1 129 Caption: “Listen to the music any place you like.” Both the ad’s text and the set’s name “Vagabond” underline its portability and mobility as a crucial characteristic of the transistor radio. Source: Radio Times, 13 June 1958, p. 14. Copy right note: Despite our attempts, we have not been able to find the legal copyright owner. Figure 12.1 182 Caption: Graves at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten Source: Leaflet for Alle Namen, Intro| in situ, 2004 Courtesy Moniek Wegdam Figure 12.2 183 Caption: Map of the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten Source: The website of the American Battle Monuments Commission: www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ne_pict.pdf) Courtesy: American Battle Monuments Commission, Arlington, VA, USA Figure 12.3 184 Caption: Aerial view of the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten Source: The website of the American Battle Monuments Commission: www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ne_pict.pdf Courtesy: American Battle Monuments Commission, Arlington, VA, USA Figure 12.4 189 Caption: White casings to hide technology Source: Moniek Wegdam Courtesy Moniek Wegdam 11 Introduction Karin Bijsterveld and José van Dijck To Philipp Perlmann, a linguist in the novel Perlmann’s Silence by Pascal Mercier (2007 [1995]), things have lost their “presence.” He seems only capable of fully experiencing life when remembering it, and he clings hopelessly to the sentences his acquaintances have expressed in the past. Because his own academic field has become utterly meaningless to him, he has started translating a text by a Russian colleague on the relation between language and remembering. It is through words, and only through words, the text argues, that people create and construct their memories, thus appropriating, as it were, what has happened. Perlmann cannot but agree with a message that is so close to his personal experiences, yet he is criti- cal about one particular issue. What about people’s sensorial memories – are nar- ratives about one’s past capable of retrospectively changing sensory perceptions? It is Perlmann’s only original contribution to a text he nearly plagiarizes: the key event in the novel’s tragic plot. Perlmann’s puzzle touches on the heart of this book. It is not merely through words that people either consciously or involuntarily recall past events and emo- tions, but also through sound and music. These memories of past events include the sensory experiences of having listened to particular recordings and interacted and tinkered materially with the devices that play them. Audio technologies allow people to reopen such experiences. This is one of the practices that particularly fascinated us when we began thinking about this