Guitars are played by millions of people around the world; but what gives each one a unique sound and feel? The technique of the player, the skill with which its wood was cut, or the tree from where that wood was sourced? Professor Chris Gibson, co-author of The Guitar: Tracing the Grain Back to the Tree (2021), will take us on a globe-spanning journey from guitar shops and factories to remote sawmills and distant rainforests, in order to understand the chains of exploitation and care that make the musical instrument.
15 registrants will be entered to win a FREE copy of the book!
About Chris Gibson
In the 1990s Chris Gibson kicked around as a musician, swing dancer and record store tragic before settling into a career as Professor of Geography at the University of Wollongong, Australia. In an effort to combine a musical background with a “proper” academic job he wrote a PhD on the geography of the music industry, tracing links between urban and regional scenes and globalisation. With his supervisor, John Connell, he turned much of the PhD into his first book, Sound Tracks. Since then Chris and John have written books on music, tourism, and festivals. With Andrew Warren, he wrote a history of surfboard-making, and a book tracing guitars from factory to forest. His most recent book is The Church’s Starfish, for Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series.
Special thanks to the Mead Witter School of Music and the Department of Geography at UW-Madison for co-sponsoring this Global Dialogues event.
