Preserving That Signature Sound Trudi Sandmeier [00:07]: Hello! This is Save As, a podcast that glimpses the future of Heritage Conservation through the work of graduate students at the University of Southern California. I’m Trudi Sandmeier, Director of Graduate Programs…
Month: November 2020
Preserving That Signature Sound
Have you ever considered sound a character-defining feature? Musician and recent USC grad Kasey Viso Conley certainly has. She knows why Nat King Cole, Janis Joplin, Van Halen, and countless other recording artists insisted on using specific studios to get a certain sound. It’s the physical environment of the studio, from acoustic tiles to echo chambers. Yet the transformation of recording technology has studios closing left and right. Why save these places when you can simulate their sounds at home with a digital plugin? How do you preserve pegboard that’s no longer made? Hear how Kasey explored these issues and many more in her thesis, Acoustic Heritage of Recording Studios: Physical Characteristics and Signature Sound.
Traces of Violence in the City of Angels
In this year of racial reckoning, our first Save As interview explores sites of violence against people of color. Recent graduate Jackson Loop talks with producer Willa Seidenberg about the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots, the 1969 police raid on the Black Panthers’ L.A. headquarters, and the 1992 uprising surrounding the vicious beating of Rodney King. Examining sites associated with these events underscores systemic flaws in the current, top-down process of preservation–as well as solutions emerging from the ground up. Why is it important to remember painful history, and how can we do it when the physical presence is erased?