Sound as evidence: Listening in the field and the laboratory in 20th-century Czech science

GA ČR 25-18562S

This project sets out to examine how sound was made into a category of evidence in the 20thcentury Czech science, specifically in audio forensics and biology. It seeks to provide original case studies of thus far neglected research areas, but also bring new theoretical insights about scientific evidence-making and the status of sound and listening in the sciences and humanities. It will trace how listening as a cultural practice was transformed into a distinctive scientific technique and pay attention to the relationship between listening and visualization in the sciences, while attending to feedback loops between different – both academic and nonacademic – fields and cultural practices concerned with sound-based objects. The focus on the Czech lands and the Central European region more broadly both complements and challenges recent studies in the history of science which investigate sound-based skills and concepts in the sciences and humanities in French, German, and English-speaking contexts.