ARSP Awarded Luce Grant
Official announcement by the Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters:
Welcome!
Welcome to the American Religious Sounds Project blog. Here you will find an archive of posts from researchers, teachers, community members, students, and ARSP team members about their experiences with all aspects of the ARSP. The blog posts, written between 2014-2022, include reflections on teaching with the ARSP archive, responses to gallery exhibits, news stories and updates about the project, descriptions of recording at research sites by both scholars and students, and miscellaneous writings about religion and sound. The blog was intended to be a space for presenting ideas in progress, celebrating collaboration, fostering scholarly networks, and sharing innovative practices for incorporating the ARSP in teaching and research.
From the Visual to the Sonic
by Lauren Pond
As the ARSP multimedia content producer, I create audio clips, collages, and essays from recordings gathered by the project’s student and staff researchers. In my editing, I try to tease out specific themes (such as food and drink in religious practice, and the presence of religion during protests, to name a couple). I also call attention to unexpected sounds, such as the roar of a landing plane during a Serbian Orthodox chapel blessing, or the rumble of idling semi-tractor trailers just outside of a travel center chapel.
ARSP Spring Pilot Sites
On October 20, the ARSP leadership team gathered at OSU for an all-day brainstorming session with our three pilot site coordinators. In Spring 2018, our project will be incorporated into university courses led by Christopher Cantwell, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Rachel M.
Second ARSP Advisory Board Meeting
On September 14-16, 2017, we were delighted to host our second ARSP advisory board meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
The ATL Maps Project and the ARSP
ARSP Advisory Board member and project co-originator, Kathryn McClymond, has a wonderful blog post up about her work with the ATL Maps project, in which she reflects on the value of sound mapping for studying and teaching about Atlanta’s religious diversity. We are excited about bringing our projects together in the near future. Stay tuned!
Singing HU
By Lauren Pond
Tsougrisma
Text by Amy DeRogatis
Recordings by Emma Pittsley
Photographs and Audio Editing by Lauren Pond
Takin’ It to the Streets: Pilgrimage in East Lansing
By Amy DeRogatis
Last Sunday, April 2, 2017, I participated in an interfaith pilgrimage through the streets of East Lansing. To prepare for the event, I spent a few days reading and thinking about pilgrimage. Why do people take pilgrimages? What do they hope to accomplish? Where are they seeking to go? And, significantly for this project, what are the sounds that I might expect to hear while on a pilgrimage?
Building Community Relationships
Text by Caroline Toy
Recordings, editing, and photographs by Lauren Pond
At many sites and events where ARSP researchers record, we try to make ourselves barely noticeable to the community. While we get permission to record and answer questions openly, it’s not unusual for us to document a service or festival understanding that our recordings are only an auditory snapshot, a single, ephemeral slice of religious life at a particular place and time.
Sound as a Point of Contact
Recordings, photographs, and text by Lauren Pond and Isaac Weiner Audio editing by Lauren Pond