Call for Games: Playing with Sound: How Do You Listen?

Dear SEM members,

Greetings! The Sound Studies Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology invites proposals for “Playing with Sound: How Do You Listen?,” an interactive gaming session at the 2026 SEM Annual Meeting that explores listening through play as a situated and embodied form of knowledge (Feld and Brenneis 2004; Pink 2009). Inspired by T. L. Taylor’s argument that ethnography and play share foundations in inquiry, experimentation, embodiment, affect, contingency, and the possibility of productive failure (2022), we invite our community to explore how play might open new ways of listening, understanding, and doing ethnographic research.

We welcome all forms of games and play, including playful experiments, participatory scores, improvisation, listening exercises, vocal role-play, building sounding objects, video or online games, and other (im)possible approaches. Works may be in progress, collaborative, or uncategorizable. Be creative! Any form of play or gaming that explores the realities and possibilities of listening as an ethnographic method of knowing is welcome.

The session will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2026, from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. at Indiana University Bloomington.

Please submit the requested information and a 250-word abstract describing your work, object, game, or moment of play through the application form here by August 20, 2026. Applicants will be notified of the results in September. Please direct inquiries to the PI, Winnie W. C. Lai, at semsoundstudies@gmail.com.

We look forward to sharing a fun gaming evening with you! Thank you!

SEM Sound Studies Section Executive Committee