Sound Works A Cultural Theory of Sound Design

What is sound design? What is its function in the early 21st century and into the future?

Sound Works examines these questions in four parts: Part 1, 'Why This Sound?', presents an overview of the modern history of sound design. Part 2 is highly visual and provides a glance onto a sound designer's workbench and the current state of 'Sonic Labor.' Part 3 uses cultural analysis to explore our contemporary 'Living with Sounds.' The final and fourth part then proposes a series of anthropological and political interpretations of how “Sound Works” today.

This book is not a manual on sound design; it instead argues for a cultural theory of sound design for sound designers and sound artists, for clients who commission a sound design and for researchers in the fields of sound studies, design research, and cultural studies.