SONARS

Our work

• Publications

  • In preparation: Dippel, Anne; Mackie, Alastair, Thanner, Sarah: Analyse durch Synthese: Ludisches Sampling als Erkenntnismodus der Kulturanthropologie. In: Überraschung, Zufall, Kontingenz. Zum Unbestimmten in Gesellschaft und Wissenschaft. Kieler Studien zur Kulturanalyse.
  • 2024. Mackie, Alastair. “On Cultivating Sound: Sampling, Morphogenesis, and a Creative Sonic Ethnography.” In Heimatkunde: Explorations of Place and Belonging, edited by Máiréad Nic Craith, Katerina Strani, and Alastair Mackie, 264–75. Münster: LIT Verlag.
  • 2024. Mackie, Alastair. “Creative ethnology as an invitation to play: analysis of a fieldwork-based composition.” Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft. Journal for Cultural Analysis and European Ethnology 120/2: 302–6.
  • 2014. Dippel, Anne: „Klanghöhle Großstadt“. In: Quottom Magazin 5/2014 „Versuchung/Identität“.
• Art & Installations

  ++++Upcoming: 8-11 September 2026 SONARS@ EASST2026 Conference Krákow: Modulation Matrix: Speculative Choreography for Worlds that could be Otherwise ++++

  Alastair Mackie: S43 (A Sonic Fieldnote). Soundscape Composition. Listen on SoundcloudExterner Link. 

• Workshops & Talks & Teaching

  Talks 

  • 04/06/2026. Anne Dippel with sonars: Analysis through Synthesis. Workshop im Rahmen des Förderprojekts Lausitzer Rhythmen. Berlin/Cottbus.
  • 30/01/2026. Alastair Mackie: Engaging with Place Wisdom through Creative Sonic Ethnography: Initial Explorations and Future Possibilities. LINCS Research Seminar, Heriot-Watt University.
  • 2025/06/03. Anne Dippel, Alastair Mackie: Re-Cycle, Re-Tune, Repeat: Sample-based Synthesis as Practice and Analytic of Circularity. SIEF Congress 2025, University of Aberdeen. 
  • 15/05/2025. Anne Dippel: The Cure. Bots don't Cry? Media Theory as Politics of pharmacological Care Through Enharmonic Synthesis. ASTA's Choice Ringvorlesung, HBK Braunschweig.
  • 17/07/2024. Anne Dippel, Alastair Mackie: Mangling samples, doing science? Creative sample manipulation in ethnographic fieldwork. EASST-4S 2024 "Making and Doing Transformations", VU Amsterdam.

  Workshops

  • 27/10/2025 & 03/11/2025 & 19/01/2026. Sound Design and Ethnography: Three explorative Workshops at the Institute for Design Research, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig.
  • 02/10/2025. Workshop „Unerwartetes hören – Das kreative Potenzial von Audio-samples in ethnografischer Forschung“, 45. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft (DGEKW), Christian-Albrechts-Universität.
  • 06/06/2025. Workshop „Unwriting through creative sonic fieldnotes: exploring the potential of audio samples in ethnographic research”, SIEF Congress 2025, University of Aberdeen.
  • 25/04/2024. Doing and Undoing Sonic Fieldnotes: Exploring the creative potential of audio samples in ethnographic research 18th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), University of Barcelona.

  Teaching

  • 2026/2027. Alastair Mackie: Klangwelten des Alltags: Einführung in die auditive Feldforschung. Ludwig-Uhland-Institut für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.
  • 2626. Alastair Mackie: Sonic Ethnography: Listening, Recording, Creating. Institute for Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.
  • 2024/2025. Anne Dippel, Sarah Thanner, Alastair Mackie: Projektseminar Kulturtechniken der Simulation: Sound und Synthesis 2024/2025, FSU Jena.