Playing the Archive

About Playing the Archive

Ethnomusicologist Sydney Hutchinson dives into experimental archival research with interviews, radio plays, & more. Part of the Second World Music project (Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung & Ethnological Museum Berlin).

Publisher

Dr. Sydney Hutchinson

Category

music · science · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Feb 2025

Latest episode

18 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

12 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   18 Jun 2026

   Playing the Archive: Das Märchen vom Hofmusiker in der DDR (#12)

   Es war einmal ein Junge, der im Königspalast aufwuchs und einen Soldaten Cello spielen hörte – und sich sofort darin verliebte. Der Prinz bemerkte das große Interesse des Kindes und schickte ihn ins Ausland, um die Geheimnisse des Instruments zu ergründen. Im fernen Land der DDR lernte der Junge fleißig und wurde weit und breit bekannt. Seine alte Heimat versank in Blut und Chaos, also blieb er in seiner neuen Heimat – auch als dieses Land schließlich ebenfalls zerfiel. Das ist die Geschichte des kambodschanisch-ostdeutschen Jazzmusikers Sonny Thet. Das ist unsere erste Folge auf Deutsch! English version soon to follow. In „Playing the Archive“ taucht die Musikethnologin Sydney Hutchinson mit Interviews, Hörspielen und vielem mehr in die experimentelle Archivforschung ein. Dieser Podcast ist Teil des „Second World Music“-Projekts. Mehr dazu erfährt man unter Zweite-Welt-Musik (https://zweiteweltmusik.wordpress.com/). Playing the Archive © 2026 by Sydney Hutchinson/Second World Music is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

2. 

   1 Dec 2025

   Playing the Archive: Hearing in Red and Yellow (#11)

   Ethnomusicologist Sydney Hutchinson interviews Vietnamese culture worker Nhi Duong about Cold War histories of Vietnamese people in Berlin and how those histories impact archives and soundscapes.

3. 

   1 Nov 2025

   Playing the Archive: Spectral Sounds & Sonic Storytelling (#10)

   Sound artists Nicolás Rey and Rita Santos explore lost sounds and spectral voices, combining sound studies research with experimental sound art in a discussion with Sydney Hutchinson, revealing the afterlife of obsolete media in this interview.

4. 

   30 Sept 2025

   Playing the Archive: Chinese Square Dance (#9)

   Chang Cheng discusses her research on Chinese square dancing, known as "Guang Chang Wu," in Norway with Serena Agbokhan in this interview episode, exploring its cultural significance and impact on community.

5. 

   30 Aug 2025

   Playing the Archive: Archives (and Their Others) in the Aural City (#8)

   Ethnomusicologist Sydney Hutchinson interviews sound scholar Alejandro Madrid about how archives shape collective belonging and national agendas, revealing insights into material selection and transformation.

6. 

   31 Jul 2025

   Playing the Archive: Deaf Voices and Distant Listening (#7)

   Musicologist Sarah Fuchs discusses early recording technologies and the ethics of hearing historical voices with Sydney Hutchinson, exploring how we interpret voices from the past in this interview.

7. 

   25 Jun 2025

   Playing the Archive: Southern Sounds, Southern Stories (#6)

   Sound artist Keyania Campbell discusses her research recreating pre-Hurricane Katrina soundscapes in New Orleans, offering insights into preserving cultural history through experimental archival research in an interview with Sydney Hutchinson.

8. 

   28 May 2025

   Playing the Archive: The Viral and the Archival (#5)

   Ethnomusicologists Sydney Hutchinson and Hannah Judd explore the ephemeral nature of sound and the challenges of preserving digital audio in archives for future understanding in this episode.

9. 

   30 Apr 2025

   Playing the Archive: Gina Knapp's Slice of Life (#4)

   You thought group projects in school were tricky? Try writing a telenovela with 900 collaborators!In this episode we talk with visual anthropologist Gina Knapp about how she worked together with villagers in highland Papua New Guinea to create a show that blended fiction with reality to tell some truths about their life. Using a collaborative process both challenging and therapeutic, "A Slice of Life" drew from over 100 hours of footage in Gina's personal archive as well as newly shot scenes acted by the villagers themselves. The group hopes to continue the series, and is looking for donations to help them shoot another nine episodes.Watch the pilot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkMORZBPpGsAnd contact Gina if you're ready to donate!In Playing the Archive, ethnomusicologists Sydney Hutchinson and Hannah Judd dive into experimental archival research with interviews, radio plays, & more. This podcast is a part of the Second World Music project. To learn more, and find more of our dance videos, visit http://secondworldmusic.wordpress.com.Playing the Archive © 2025 by Sydney Hutchinson/Second World Music is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

10. 

    21 Mar 2025

    Playing the Archive: Orion, Orion, Oh My! (#3)

    If you don't know the Orion, what are you waiting for? You're missing out on a hot trend (of the summer of 1963 in East Germany)! In our first episode, we explored the story of the Lipsi, a new dance East Germans created in 1958 to compete with Western trends. In this episode, we continue the story by exploring the Orion, the GDR's answer to the twist, as well as some other experiments in international socialist choreographies of the 1960s. Lions and tigers and Orion - Oh my!Watch our reconstruction of the Orion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkhMTQvoNUQDance Orion yourself with this basic step tutorial:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xCRiMkGFUFcIn Playing the Archive, ethnomusicologists Sydney Hutchinson and Hannah Judd dive into experimental archival research with interviews, radio plays, & more. This podcast is a part of the Second World Music project. To learn more, and find more of our dance videos, visit http://secondworldmusic.wordpress.com.Playing the Archive © 2025 by Sydney Hutchinson/Second World Music is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

11. 

    21 Feb 2025

    Playing the Archive: I Will Not Weep (#2)

    European colonists derided them as "headhunters." Christian missionaries forbade them from practicing traditional music and dance. The Indian army continues to target them. But the Naga people of northeast India are still there. In this episode we talk with Senti Toy, a New York-based Naga ethnomusicologist and musician, about how she created the sound exhibit "I will not weep" for the Humboldt-Forum. What does cultural survival sound like in Nagaland today? What can songs tell us about Naga history and resistance?In Playing the Archive, ethnomusicologists Sydney Hutchinson and Hannah Judd dive into experimental archival research with interviews, radio plays, & more. This podcast is a part of the Second World Music project. To learn more, visit http://secondworldmusic.wordpress.com.Playing the Archive © 2025 by Sydney Hutchinson/Second World Music is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

12. 

    19 Feb 2025

    Playing the Archive: Lipsi Daisy! (#1)

    How should socialist youth dance? How can social dance be more socialist? These questions may not be keeping YOU up at night, but things might look differently if you were an East German cultural functionary!In this episode, we go into the story of the Lipsi, a new dance East Germans created in 1958 to compete with Western trends. We also talk about how the Second World Music project came about, the process of reconstructing dances from archival materials, and how people have reacted to the Lipsi - both back then and at present.In Playing the Archive, ethnomusicologists Sydney Hutchinson and Hannah Judd dive into experimental archival research with interviews, radio plays, & more. This podcast is a part of the Second World Music project. To learn more, visit http://secondworldmusic.wordpress.com.Playing the Archive © 2025 by Sydney Hutchinson/Second World Music is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Who has been a guest on Playing the Archive

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Nhi Duong
• Nicolás Rey
• Rita Santos
• Chang Cheng
• Alejandro Madrid

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

65,788

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Podcast Authority Score: 20 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

10

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

0

Contact Playing the Archive

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.