This course explores diverse accounts of the role of sound and listening in global cultures, focusing on the contemporary and historical production, collection and circulation of sound and sound-producing objects. Sound objects have been amassed for centuries – collected, documented and stored in archives, lofts, memory sticks, phones and clouds – while modern technology now creates exciting new sonic possibilities for the delivery and curation of sound. Phonographers use microphones to capture the rhythms of insects, electronic artist Aphex Twin can conduct an orchestra by remote control, and sound artists use ambisonics to encode sound fields with incredible fidelity. As today the influence of the commercial recording industry is declining, and the age of personal sound production and inter-personal distribution is proliferating many key questions arise: What methods and resources might scholars use to collect, analyse, create and use sound? How might we conceptualise and develop the relationships between sound archives, soundscapes and contemporary communities? What does it mean to listen to and in culture? How do different cultures experience, shape and change the world around them through sound and listening?