 The
clang and clatter of the early twentieth century is music to Emily
Thompson’s ears—or, at least, fodder for her unusual
scholarship.
Thompson is an aural historian,
specializing in sound and sound technology, music, noise and listening.
An associate
professor in the UCSD
department of history, she is the author of the
well-received book The Soundscape of Modernity, from MIT Press.
She is also a 2005 recipient
of a MacArthur Fellowship. Popularly known as a “genius grant,” the
award recognizes the creativity, originality and potential of Thompson’s
research with $500,000 in “no strings attached” support
over the next five years. Thompson’s work so far has centered on changes in architectural
acoustic design as reflections of larger cultural and social shifts
in American life in the early 1900s—including the emergence
of excessive noise and the efforts of scientists and designers to
create new spaces and a new, “modern” sound. While she muses about the many possible uses of her MacArthur
monies, Thompson says she plans to continue working on a
book about the 1925-33
transition from silent motion pictures to talkies, focusing on
behind-the-scenes technicians and laborers. She is also planning articles aimed at a more general audience:
one, about a deadly fire on a Manhattan soundstage in 1929
and its role
in the downfall of Tammany Hall; and the other on the Vitaphone
Project, a group that preserves the 12- and 16-inch shellac
soundtrack discs
from early film shorts of Vaudeville performers, bands and opera
singers. Thompson is the 15th UCSD scholar
to receive a MacArthur Fellowship and the fifth from the
University’s Division of Arts and Humanities.  — Inga Kiderra
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