“The range of a bell, inscribed in a classical perspective of harmony, served to define a territory that was haunted by the notion of limits as well as the threat of those limits being transgressed.“

–Alain Corbin, Village Bells

Auditory communities are created when we all hear (or are forced to hear) the same sounds. Inclusive and excluding, such communities are formed or fractured, coalesced or disrupted by our ever-increasing use of portable electronic devices. In the era of bluetooth speakers and earbuds, we find ever more complicated ways to reach out or to close off, both positions fundamentally made possible through technological engagements. Sound is social; it can also be a weapon. Silence is golden; it can also sunder. Somewhere between these poles we all function. Tonight students and faculty in two classes that deal with sound in very different ways come together to think through its implications.