On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the global outbreak of COVID-19, the novel Coronavirus, a pandemic. This date came to define a new normalcy in our daily lives while marking the beginning of extraordinary and unprecedented times. One can talk about various aspects of this pandemic; however, in this piece my focus will be on pandemic soundscapes.  

In the 2019-2020 academic year, the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto offered, for the first time, an undergraduate level sound studies course entitled HMU385: An Introduction to Sound Studies. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to teach this third-year elective course to a group of brilliant music students. Approaching sound and listening “as a way of knowing” in the approach developed by ethnomusicologist Steven Feld, HMU385 aimed to encourage students to discover the critical questions of “what sound does in the human world, what humans do in the sonic world” (Sterne 2013) and how can sound effect the ways people engage and perceive everyday life in urban spaces. As the course instructor, I planned the term based on various topics in relation to the sound studies and decided not to make any kind of exam a part of this syllabus. My idea was to provide an “ears-on” kind of approach with a focus on active listening, composing and sonic ethnography. Assignments have also facilitated critical thinking and listening about how sounds affect every facet of our lives. While assigned readings, audio-visual examples, lectures, and class discussions aimed to build a theoretical understanding of sound’s relation to larger issues of identity politics, culture, media, power, technology and capitalism, students also had the opportunity to put these theories into practice through basic recording assignments such as recorded soundwalks and thematic soundscape compositions.

We were getting closer to start working on the final projects for which students were asked to work in groups of two or three and scripting, producing, and editing their own 15 to 20 minutes podcasts. Their task was to create an engaging, inquiry-based podcast with a consistent structure, style, and delivery based on their sonic ethnographic research under the research protocol of the Kensington Market Research Project of the Ethnography Lab in the Department of Anthropology. As they proceeded with their project proposals during the month of March, COVID 19 was declared a global pandemic. Our plans to conduct ethnographic research became impossible as did sonic ethnography-based podcast project in Kensington Market. While teaching the rest of the course online, I was also aware that the pandemic would create unprecedented soundscapes and sonic engagements in the near future. The Robarts Research Library was still open for a few more days although in-person classes had stopped. Since I also work at there as a Student Library Assistant, I was spending quite a lot of time in this haunted library, answering phone calls, helping the patrons who are not sure about how the closures will affect their exams, teaching and research projects. I often found myself paying close attention to the sonic environment in the library as well as in deserted streets in downtown Toronto. Some of the curious questions that immediately came to my mind during my active listening practice were: How does a pandemic sound like? What are the sounds that surround me during this 21st century global pandemic? What sounds will be missing in my new normalcy? What kinds of meaning making processes will we be involved in when listening to our drastically changed new acoustic environment? Will the sound of a cough be heard as it used to be? What will be the role of media and technology in our new sonic environments?

While I was thinking of all these questions, the news and videos shared on social media accounts shortly answered some of my curiosities. The toilet paper battles in grocery stores, increasingly racist tone of political speeches, Italians singing from their balconies to motivate health workers who also sing and dance in hospitals to motivate each other, and of course president Donald Trump’s insistence of calling the novel coronavirus as the Chinese virus comprised some of the well-known soundtracks of our daily lives. Listening to the online concerts on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, video chats with friends and family, delay times in these conversations due to internet speed, musician’s attempts to rehearse online with their group members, colleagues and students, online concerts and increasing domestic violence numbers kept creating new questions in my mind. Under the rules of social isolation, hearing, listening and sounding have become the only possible ways of daily interaction. Sound took the place of a “touch” in its literal meaning—sometimes soft, friendly, comforting and sometimes bitter, hurting, exclusionary “touch from a distance” (Schafer 1977). How long will these extraordinary times continue? Will we have enough time to adjust in this new normal? What will be the role of sound and listening in this kind of an everyday life? These questions immediately urged me to think about a new project which we later decided to call “Listening to COVID 19 Pandemic Podcast Series” with my students who collectively voted yes for this new project during our very first virtual class on Monday, March 16th.

The following six podcasts showcase some of the strongest work that has been created in HMU385: An Introduction to Sound Studies during this term. Each podcast was individually or as a group work scripted, produced and edited by my students Nicholas Bridi, Hillary Chu, Samuel Kerr, Vivian Kwok, Lian McMillan, Lydia Shan, and Jacob Thomas in a very short period of time. I am very proud of each one of them, and of the efforts put forth by all the students in the class under the time constraints and unprecedented global pandemic.

Acknowledging our privileged positions during this pandemic, we are hoping that these podcasts will create new questions, new research interests and new sensibilities to our audience while they are self-isolating and staying healthy in the safety of their homes.