James Mansell

Contact

• workRoom B53 Trent Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 95 13273
• James.Mansell@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

James Mansell is Professor of Cultural History and Sound Studies in the Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies at the University of Nottingham where he has also held Associate Professor (2018-23) and Assistant Professor (2010-18) positions. He completed BA (Hons), MA, and PhD degrees in History at the University of Manchester. His research is on sound cultures, especially the preservation and interpretation of sounds from the past, and his teaching encompasses a wide variety of audio media and listening cultures. Since 2015, he has collaborated with the Science Museum Group on a wide-ranging programme of research examining the intersection of sound, music, museums, and the history of science and technology under the heading 'Sound and Music'. He was Co-Investigator of the AHRC funded Science Museum projects 'Music, Noise and Silence' and 'Musical Affordances and Counterfactuals' and Principal Investigator of the AHRC funded project Sonic Futures: Collecting, Curating and Engaging with Sound at the National Science and Media Museum.

Expertise Summary

James's research and teaching expertise are in sound studies. His research has focused on the cultural history of sound and hearing, sound media, and on histories of sonic modernity and modernism. In addition to research on the history of noise and everyday hearing he has worked on histories of 'occult' sound in relation to 'enchanted' modernist arts practices. He is currently working, among other things, on sound, museums and heritage. You can read about some of his work with the Science Museum in this blog and his work with the National Science and Media Museum in this blog.

Books

The Age of Noise in Britain: Hearing Modernity (University of Illinois Press, 2017). You can listen to a feature about the book on BBC Radio 4's 'Thinking Allowed' and a full author interview on the New Books in Sound Studies podcast.

Negotiating Noise Across Spaces, Places and Disciplines , co-edited with Sanne Krogh Groth (Sound Environment Centre, Lund University, 2021). You can watch a series of videos featuring the authors on the 'Negotiating Noise' page of the Sound Environment Centre website and see new sound art videos connected to the book on the book launch event page. Listen to a talk about the book at the Gothenberg Book Fair 2022.

Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, the Arts and the American West, co-edited with Christopher Scheer and Sarah Victoria Turner (Fulgur, 2019). You can read a review on Frieze, an interview with the editors entitled 'The origin of Enchanted Modernities' ,and watch a public lecture about the book delivered at the Gamble House, California.

The Projection of Britain: A History of the GPO Film Unit, co-edited with Scott Anthony (BFI Books, 2011).

Exhibitions

Enchanted Modernities: Mysticism, Landscape and the American West, an exhibition at Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah, USA, 2014, with Christopher Scheer and Sarah Victoria Turner. Read a review here. You can also listen to a radio feature about the exhibition.

Pioneering Spirit: Maud MacCarthy - Music, Mysticism and Modernity, an exhibition at the Borthwick Institute for Archives, York, UK, 2014, with Rachel Cowgill, Christopher Scheer and Sarah Victoria Turner.

Research Summary

Funded Research Projects

Musical Affordances and Counterfactuals, AHRC Follow on Funding for Engagement and Impact, 2024-25

Sonic Futures: Collecting, Curating and Engaging with Sound at the National Science and Media Museum, AHRC Follow On Funding for Engagement and Impact, 2020-21

Sensory Engagement: Arts, Museum and Research Collaboration for Sound Practice, University of Nottingham and Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, 2016-17

Acoustics on Display: Collecting and Curating Sound at the Science Museum, AHRC Cultural Engagement Fund, 2016

Music, Noise and Silence: Building Engagement in the Culture of Music and Science, AHRC Network, 2014-15

Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, Modernism and the Arts, 1875-1960, Leverhulme International Network, 2012-15

Recent Publications

• MEDIASTIKA, C., SUDARSONO, A., UTAMI, S., SETIAWAN, T., MANSELL, J. G., SANTOSA, R., WIRATAMA, A., YANTI, R. and CLIFFE, L., 2024. The sound heritage of Kotagede: The evolving soundscape of a living museum Built Heritage. 8,
• MANSELL, J. G., DE LITTLE, ALEX and JAMIESON, ANNIE, 2022. Staging listening: new methods for engaging audiences with sound in museums Science Museum Group Journal.
• CLIFFE, L., MANSELL, J. G., GREENHALGH, C. and HAZZARD. A., 2021. Materialising contexts: virtual soundscapes for real-world exploration Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 25, 623–636
• MANSELL, J. G., 2021. Historical Acoustemology: Past, Present, and Future Music Research Annual. 2, 1-19

• View all publications

James has supervised seven PhD theses and one MRes thesis to date on topics ranging from the history of TV in Britain to the commemoration of war dead in contemporary Britain to the use of amateur film in public history. He welcomes enquires from potential postgraduate research students working in any area of media and cultural studies, especially media and cultural history, sensory studies and sound studies.

• MEDIASTIKA, C., SUDARSONO, A., UTAMI, S., SETIAWAN, T., MANSELL, J. G., SANTOSA, R., WIRATAMA, A., YANTI, R. and CLIFFE, L., 2024. The sound heritage of Kotagede: The evolving soundscape of a living museum Built Heritage. 8,
• MANSELL, J. G., DE LITTLE, ALEX and JAMIESON, ANNIE, 2022. Staging listening: new methods for engaging audiences with sound in museums Science Museum Group Journal.
• CLIFFE, L., MANSELL, J. G., GREENHALGH, C. and HAZZARD. A., 2021. Materialising contexts: virtual soundscapes for real-world exploration Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 25, 623–636
• MANSELL, J. G., 2021. Historical Acoustemology: Past, Present, and Future Music Research Annual. 2, 1-19
• GROTH, S. K. and MANSELL, J. G., eds., 2021. Negotiating Noise across Spaces, Places and Disciplines. Lund University.
• MANSELL, J. G., 2021. Noise in History: Someone Else's Sound. In: GROTH, S. K. and MANSELL, J. G., eds., Negotiating Noise Across Spaces, Places and Disciplines Lund University.
• MANSELL, J. G., 2020. Noise. In: SNAITH, A., ed., Sound and Literature. Cambridge University Press. 154-169
• STAFFORD, J. and MANSELL, J. G., 2020. Sound and Place: Digital Mapping and Community Listening Practice. National Science and Media Museum.
• MANSELL, J. G., 2020. Urban Soundscapes. Oxford Bibliographies.
• MANSELL, J. G., 2020. Hearing With: Researching the Histories of Sonic Encounter. In: BULL, MICHAEL and COBUSSEN, MARCEL, eds., The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methodologies Bloomsbury.
• SCHEER, C., TURNER, S. V. and MANSELL, J. G., eds., 2019. Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, the Arts and the American West. Fulgur.
• MANSELL, J.G., 2019. Optical Enchantment: Oskar Fischinger and Visual Music. In: SCHEER, C., TURNER, S. V. and MANSELL, J. G., eds., Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, Landscape and the American West. Fulgur.
• MANSELL, J.G. and STAWARSKA-BEAVAN, M., 2019. Between Noise and Silence: Listening to the Modern City. In: SPEIGHT, E., ed., Practising Place: Creative and Critical Reflections on Place. Art Editions North. 104-117
• MANSELL, J.G., 2018. Ways of Hearing: Sound, Culture and History. In: BULL, MICHAEL, ed., The Routledge Companion to Sound Studies. Routledge. 343-352
• MANSELL, J. G., 2018. New Histories of the Urban Soundscape. Journal of Urban History. 44(2), 341-348
• MANSELL, J. G., 2017. The Age of Noise in Britain: Hearing Modernity. University of Illinois Press.
• MANSELL, J. G., 2017. 'A Chamber of Noise Horrors': Sound, Technology and the Museum. Science Museum Group Journal. 7,
• BOON, T., JAMIESON, A., KANNENBERG, J., KOLKOWSKI, A. and MANSELL, J.G., 2017. Organising Sound: how a research network might help structure an exhibition Science Museum Group Journal. 8,
• KOLKOWSKI, A., MANSELL, J.G. and KANNENBERG, J., 2017. Music, Noise and Silence: Defining Relationships between Science & Music in Modernity Science Museum.
• MANSELL, J. G., 2014. Neurasthenia, Civilization and the Sounds of Modern Life: Narratives of Nervous Illness in the Inter-war Campaign against Noise. In: MORAT, DANIEL, ed., Sounds of Modern History: Auditory Cultures in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe
• Pioneering Spirit: Maud MacCarthy - Mysticism, Music and Modernity 2014. 02/08/2014 00:00:00-05/09/2014 00:00:00.
• SCOTT ANTHONY and JAMES G MANSELL, 2012. Special Issue: The Documentary Film Movement and the Spaces of British Identity Twentieth Century British History. 23(1), 1-99
• SCOTT A. and MANSELL, J.G., eds., 2011. The projection of Britain: a history of the GPO Film Unit Palgrave MacMillan.
• MANSELL, J.G., 2011. Sound and the Cultural Politics of Time in the Avant-garde: Wyndham Lewis's Critique of Bergsonism. In: GASIOREK, A., REEVE-TUCKER, A. and WADDELL, N., eds., Wyndham Lewis and the Cultures of Modernity Ashgate. 111-126
• JAMES G. MANSELL, 2011. Rhythm, Modernity and the Politics of Sound. In: SCOTT ANTHONY and JAMES G. MANSELL, eds., The Projection of Britain: A History of the GPO Film Unit Palgrave Macmillan.
• JAMES G. MANSELL, 2009. Music and the Borders of Rationality: discourses of place in the work of John Foulds. In: BROCKINGTON, G., ed., Internationalism and the Arts in Britain and Europe at the Fin de Siècle Peter Lang. 49-78
• MANSELL, JAMES G., 2009. Psycho Buildings: Artists Take on Architecture The Senses & Society. 4(2), 259-264
• MANSELL, J.G., 2009. Musical Modernity and Contested Commemoration at the Festival of Remembrance, 1923-27 The Historical Journal. 52(2), 433-454
• JAMES G. MANSELL, 2007. Luigi Russolo's Art of Noises The Senses & Society. 2(3), 391-395