Gramophone–disco and the experience of listening

Abstract

This project develops the gramophone-disco as an artistic research method for investigating collective listening from the emergence of recorded sound to the late 1930s. Combining historical musicology, performance, and experimentation with original gramophones, it treats listening as embodied, situated, and relational. Sessions conducted between 2023 and 2026 examine technical constraints, audience responses, and material conditions of reproduction. The study argues that performative reactivation of historical listening environments can reveal knowledge about repertoire, reception, and recording practices that written sources or digitized recordings alone cannot provide.