Sound Knowledge: Alternative Epistemologies of Music in the Western Pacific Island World

2026-07-22

SoundKnowledge aims to rethink, for the first time, music in terms of the procedural knowledge inherent in and specific to music-making by exploring music-making as knowledge practices in Micronesia, Western Pacific Island world. This knowledge, formed in the performance of musical practice, may prove to be key to survival in the complex postcolonial predicament of Micronesia. I will address the issues of climate change, social alienation and postcolonial trauma in specific parts of Micronesia by fleshing out the nature and dynamics of that knowledge both conceptually and ethnographically. The systematic analysis of music as knowledge will allow me to identify strategies to foster resilience in the face of these urgent crises. At the same time, it will offer a first-of-its-kind theorization of the procedural knowledge inherent in and specific to music-making. The knowledge of music is self-referential and forms multilayered connections and ruptures with pasts, presents and futures and surrounding orders of knowledge. SoundKnowledge asks what Western Pacific musical practices know and how do they know it, how music-making makes this knowledge operable and how humans mobilize upon this knowledge in coping with their life-world through music. The project, therefore, explores how music functions as a distinct epistemic form that is often referred to as the proverbial power of music. Music research has the tools to unlock this power, and SoundKnowledge intends to plough a path here. SoundKnowledge provides insights into the specific knowledge of Western Pacific music in its entanglement with pressing cultural and social issues of the early 21st century. In contributing to the theoretical debate on the knowledge of music, the project probes vital questions of knowledge resources and human futures. SoundKnowledge will also instigate change: In collaboration with local institutions, the research results will be used towards the development of community action strategies.

Germany

2026-02-01