Historians and sociologists of science, medicine and technology have recently stressed that scientific work involves more than visual observation alone. The introduction of measurement devices that appear to require and prioritize reading and visual inspection of results has not, in fact, ruled out the deployment of scientists’ other senses. On the contrary, scientific work often depends on bodily skills, one of which is listening. And yet, listening remains a less generally accepted means of knowledge production. Our session aims to understand the contested position of listening in knowledge production by studying the role and status of sonic skills; that is, of listening skills as well as other skills needed to employ the tools and instruments for listening.

The papers in this session have two common sets of questions: First, how have scientists, physicians and mechanics employed their ears, tools and instruments to make sense of the sounds they studied and depended on in their practices? What kinds of knowledge (technical or other) have been required and acquired to mobilize sonic skills in their work, and what kinds of new knowledge have been yielded? Secondly, where, when and why did, and does, listening remain contested nonetheless?

The three papers cover four different sites of knowledge production in three different historical periods. Cases range from the recording of natural phenomena by ornithologists during the interwar period, to the ‘auscultation’ of human bodies and car engines by physicians and car mechanics in the postwar period, 1950-1970, and closing with a more recent history of auditory displays developed for complex data sets by an interdisciplinary community of scientists. Together these case studies investigate historical changes in the skills required to listen, as well as in the epistemic status of listening. They show how sonic skills exist and are redefined alongside new technologies, and how they are intertwined with the establishment of professional and scientific identities.