Roundtable Discussion: In Honor of Hugo Zemp

"Hugo Zemp used the camera as his pen." – Steven Feld

Zemp's films were groundbreaking for their use of moving images at a time, in the late 1960s and early 70s, when French ethnomusicology relied primarily on sound recordings and written descriptions. His work allowed learners to see musicians in performance, up close. As he experimented further with the technical possibilities of film, Zemp went on to pioneer the use of sound-synchronized X-ray footage, to show how sound is produced inside a performer's mouth and throat, and spectral analysis, visually displaying the sound's frequencies.

Join us for an online roundtable discussion in honor of Hugo Zemp, featuring ethnomusicologists Steven Feld, Benjamin Harbert, and Frank Gunderson, and visual anthropologist Lorenzo Ferrarini.