Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice
... They recorded sound loops on phonograph discs to facilitate sound splicing before the invention of tape recorders. While listening to the fragmented sounds, they discovered that the listener's focus shifted from the initial anecdotal significations of sound fragments to the intrinsic, subtle qualities of the sound [13]. This shift was called "écoute réduite" (reduced listening), and it paved the way for an elaborate theory of sonic objects, as described in Schaeffer's Traité des objets musicaux and associated books [14]. ...
... What defines the beginning and end of a sound object, was then a matter of its perceived expression. Schaeffer proposed stress-articulation as a method for cutting sound objects at natural discontinuities in sounds, breaking up the continuum through distinct energetic events, resulting in short, clearly shaped objects [13]. ...
This thesis presents the first prototype of a multimodal looper, an embodied interface that enables musical improvisation through connecting body movements to audiovisual forms. With the aim of building an intuitive system, the initial research focused on music cognition through an embodied paradigm, where sound perception is integrated with visual and kinesthetic modalities; as well as widely observed crossmodal correspondences. This led to the development of a live-looping system with multimodal objects: sound fragments that are gesturally activated and visually represented according to their dynamics, motion trajectories, pitch and texture. The design and implementation focused on the development of the various modules of the live-looping system. The evaluation aimed to determine if the system effectively established crossmodal correspondences for an integrated multi-sensory experience through split testing method, where the participants experimented with a variation of the system with randomized crossmodal mappings along with the original version. Although the results revealed no significant difference between the two conditions, as well as a perplexing user experience, the qualitative findings proved to be quite valuable for future iterations. 2
... Odejście od wizualności w stronę soniczności leży również u podstaw sound studies -studiów nad dźwiękiem, definiowanych jako "interdyscyplinarne badania nad materialną produkcją i konsumpcją muzyki, dźwięku, hałasu i ciszy oraz nad tym, jak zmieniały się one na przestrzeni historii i w ra-mach różnych społeczeństw" 3 (Pinch, Bijsterveld, 2004, s. 636;zob. także Truax, 1978;Sterne, 2003;Cox, Warner, 2004;Schulze, ed., 2008;Pinch, Bijsterveld, eds., 2011;Kane, 2014;Voegelin, 2014;Bull, ed., 2018) 4 . Justyna Stasiowska tak nakreśla różnicę między ekologią akustyczną a sound studies: ...
Artykuł stanowi prezentację projektu „Dawne i współczesne pejzaże dźwiękowe w literaturze dziecięcej i młodzieżowej – ekokrytyczne analizy i interpretacje w świetle ekologii akustycznej i edukacji ekologicznej”, finansowanego w ramach działania „Zielony Uniwersytet Warszawski – II edycja” (IV.3.1) ze środków programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza (2020–2026)”. W tekście zostaje przedstawiona podstawa metodologiczna projektu – wraz z kluczowymi pojęciami: ekokrytyki, ekologii akustycznej, literackiego pejzażu dźwiękowego i studiów nad dźwiękiem – oraz jego założenia, cele, poszczególne elementy, planowane działania, a także wstępne efekty przeprowadzonych dotychczas badań.
EN: Soundscapes in Children’s and Young Adult Literature – A Research Report
The article presents the project „Dawne i współczesne pejzaże dźwiękowe w literaturze dziecięcej i młodzieżowej – ekokrytyczne analizy i interpretacje w świetle ekologii akustycznej i edukacji ekologicznej” [Past and Contemporary Soundscapes in Children’s and Young Adult Literature – Eco-critical Analyses and Interpretations in the Light of Acoustic Ecology and Environmental Education], funded under the “Green University of Warsaw – 2nd Edition” action (IV.3.1) within the “Excel-lence Initiative – Research University (2020–2026)” program. The text presents the methodological basis of the project – along with the key concepts of ecocriticism, acoustic ecology, soundscape, and sound studies – as well as its assumptions, goals, individual elements, and preliminary results of the research conducted.
... Στη Φυσική, η κατανόηση του ήχου μπορεί να συμβάλει σημαντικά στην κατανόηση τόσο της κλασικής όσο και της σύγχρονης Φυσικής (Kane, 2014). Έτσι, εντοπίζοντας τις αντιλήψεις που εμποδίζουν τους μαθητές από τη σωστή κατανόηση των ηχητικών φαινομένων είναι πολύτιμη και αξίζει μια κεντρική θέση στο πρόγραμμα σπουδών της Φυσικής. ...
Κατά το πέρασμα των τελευταίων χρόνων, έχουν εντοπιστεί κ αι καταγραφεί οι αντιλήψεις των μαθητών για διάφορες έννοιες και φαινόμενα των Φυσικών Επιστημών. Ωστόσο, είναι ιδιαίτερα περιορισμένη η έρευνα που μελετά τις αντιλήψεις και την επιστημονική γνώση των μαθητών πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης για θέματα που αφορούν την έννοια του ήχου. Ως ερευνητική προσέγγιση χρησιμοποιήθηκε η συστηματική ανασκόπηση βιβλιογραφίας η οποία ανέδειξε 20 άρθρα από έγκριτα διεθνή περιοδικά, ευρετηριασμένα από το Scopus, το Google Scholar, την Elsevier, το Springer Link και την Eric, το οποία αναλύουν τις αντιλήψεις και την επιστημονική γνώση των μαθητών στην έννοια του ήχου. Αυτή η μελέτη ανέλυσε τις έρευνες σύμφωνα με τα γενικά χαρακτηριστικά τους που αποτελούνται από τον τύπο της δημοσίευσης, το έτος δημοσίευσης και την ερευνητική προσέγγιση. Μέσα από την ανάλυση των ερευνών του δείγματος προκύπτουν στοιχεία αναφορικά με το είδος, τη χρήση και την επίδραση της έννοιας του ήχου σε πτυχές της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας αλλά και στοιχεία σχετικά με το μεθοδολογικό σχεδιασμό των σύγχρονων ερευνών στο πεδίο. Τα αποτελέσματα θα αποτελέσουν τη βάση για εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων αναφορικά με την κατάσταση στη σύγχρονη έρευνα αλλά και για την σχηματισμό προτάσεων για μελλοντική έρευνα στο πεδίο της εφαρμογής και εκμάθησης της έννοιας του ήχου στην εκπαίδευση.
... Στη Φυσική, η κατανόηση του ήχου μπορεί να συμβάλει σημαντικά στην κατανόηση τόσο της κλασικής όσο και της σύγχρονης Φυσικής (Kane, 2014). Έτσι, εντοπίζοντας τις αντιλήψεις που εμποδίζουν τους μαθητές από τη σωστή κατανόηση των ηχητικών φαινομένων είναι πολύτιμη και αξίζει μια κεντρική θέση στο πρόγραμμα σπουδών της Φυσικής. ...
Κατά το πέρασμα των τελευταίων χρόνων, έχουν εντοπιστεί και καταγραφεί οι αντιλήψεις των μαθητών για διάφορες έννοιες και φαινόμενα των Φυσικών Επιστημών. Ωστόσο, είναι ιδιαίτερα περιορισμένη η έρευνα που μελετά τις αντιλήψεις και την επιστημονική γνώση των μαθητών πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης για θέματα που αφορούν την έννοια του ήχου. Ως ερευνητική προσέγγιση χρησιμοποιήθηκε η συστηματική ανασκόπηση βιβλιογραφίας η οποία ανέδειξε 20 άρθρα από έγκριτα διεθνή περιοδικά, ευρετηριασμένα από το Scopus, το Google Scholar, την Elsevier, το Springer Link και την Eric, το οποία αναλύουν τις αντιλήψεις και την επιστημονική γνώση των μαθητών στην έννοια του ήχου. Αυτή η μελέτη ανέλυσε τις έρευνες σύμφωνα με τα γενικά χαρακτηριστικά τους που αποτελούνται από τον τύπο της δημοσίευσης, το έτος δημοσίευσης και την ερευνητική προσέγγιση. Μέσα από την ανάλυση των ερευνών του δείγματος προκύπτουν στοιχεία αναφορικά με το είδος, τη χρήση και την επίδραση της έννοιας του ήχου σε πτυχές της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας αλλά και στοιχεία σχετικά με το μεθοδολογικό σχεδιασμό των σύγχρονων ερευνών στο πεδίο. Τα αποτελέσματα θα αποτελέσουν τη βάση για εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων αναφορικά με την κατάσταση στη σύγχρονη έρευνα αλλά και για την σχηματισμό προτάσεων για μελλοντική έρευνα στο πεδίο της εφαρμογής και εκμάθησης της έννοιας του ήχου στην εκπαίδευση.
... Using the material of the soundscape to construct sonic interventions and reform the soundscape of conflict, Ultra-red operationalize various zones of contention through what they call 'militant sound investigation' (Ultra-Red, 2011). Militant sound investigation offers a conceptual apparatus for thinking about the politics of the soundscape and the way it is ordered, recorded, and composed (see also eg Augoyard and Torgue, 2006;Kane, 2014). This paper works in particular with two records released by Ultra-red For the Second Nature project, they draw their sound material from the public and private soundscapes of everyday queer life and cruising in Griffith Park. ...
This paper examines queer sex and public space usage in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park through a series of recordings produced by the sound collective Ultra-red. Ultra-red have been using sound as a mode of political analysis since 1994 when they were founded by two AIDS activists in Los Angeles. This paper works in particular with two records released by Ultra-red in the late 1990s: an EP Ode to Johnny Rio (1998) and album Second Nature: An Electroacoustic Pastoral (1999), which are often referred to collectively as the Second Nature. For the Second Nature project, they draw their sound material from the public and private soundscapes of everyday queer life and cruising in Griffith Park. Ultra-red’s compositions rely on looping, fragmentation, and a radical approach to cutting audio. This disrupts both the musicality and linearity we might expect from recordings that present themselves almost as documentaries that pits queer behaviors, bodies, and identities against the suburban conceits of those who call for laws that curb the behavior in the park through policing, entrapment, barring traffic, and issuing tickets to gay men for loitering and sexual behavior.
... Naopak, niektoré diela potvrdzujú, že vynechanie alebo minimalizovanie vizuálneho vnemu nemusí mať na mieru imerzie či pocit sprítomnenia negatívny vplyv, a potvrdzujú, že samostatná sluchová simulácia má veľký imerzný potenciál a teoreticky môže plnohodnotne fungovať aj autonómne. 70 Jednoduchá, čisto zvuková hra vo forme mobilnej aplikácie Papa Sangre 71 nám vďaka výskumom, no i mnohým komentárom herného zážitku, môže poslúžiť ako výborná pomôcka na overenie určitých princípov virtuálneho zvukového prostredia na pomerne veľkej vzorke respondentov a respondentiek. Z týchto výskumov vyplýva, že zvukovo orientované modelovanie priestoru je zrozumiteľné aj pre človeka s netrénovaným uchom. ...
... Acousmatic refers to a sound whose source is undetermined, a form of hearing without access to the source of the sound's production. 5 Drawing on a longer philosophical and sonic history, Brian Kane describes how acousmatic sound has two qualifying characteristics (Kane 2014). First, the mystery of the obscured sound is as important as the sound itself, which creates speculation as to its source. ...
This essay analyzes two contemporary Latinx operas, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (2010) and Pancho Villa from a Safe Distance (2016), to develop the “acousmatic” as a racialized form of listening. Acousmatic refers to a sound whose source is undetermined, a form of hearing without access to the source of the sound’s production. Contemporary Latinx opera stages a politicized form of acousmatic listening that forces an encounter with what is otherwise unheard, unseen, or refused. I develop this idea to unpack the relationships among race, sound, and performance in this sphere.
... Kane writes, "One central, replicated feature of acousmatic listening appears to be that underdetermination of the sonic source encourages imaginative supplementation" (p. 9) [17]. This imaginary supplementation can be filled with various cultural assumptions, contributing to the overall experience of the public realm. ...
This study delves into the creative protest tactics of Belarusian activists in 2011, highlighting their use of “sound bodies” created through clapping to challenge authoritarian constraints. The research posits that these ethereal sound bodies exert significant normative pressure on the regime by challenging the regime’s legitimacy. By analyzing the clapping protests as civil disobedience, this study illustrates the effectiveness of this non-visual form of protest in compelling the authoritarian regime to address the collective call for change. Through this lens, this paper contributes a nuanced understanding of how decentralized protest strategies, particularly those leveraging sound, can serve as potent mechanisms for challenging oppressive governance in a digitally connected global landscape. This essay thus intervenes into the realms of argumentation theory and sound studies.
... The Pythagoreans, as the modern listeners of acousmatic music, were totally focused on sound. Schaeffer and his musique concrète found a phenomenological ground for such a claim (Schaeffer, 1966) by hypothesizing that acousmatic experience is an auditory experience where sounds are listened with the very specific intention of cutting out any inter-modality forms of experience so that the focus is only on the sound (Kane, 2014). The Schaefferian objet sonore as a sonorous unity perceived through its own qualities and properties -listened by itself without any relation to something else -is the correlate of reduced listening (Chion, 1983). ...
Whilst arguing for sounds as repeatable objects does not seem suitable to our auditory experience, considering them as events can then help us understand some of their main features. In this sense, sounds are events happening to material objects; they have a beginning and an end; they are ephemeral entities that we cannot grasp as ordinary objects. Nevertheless, supporters of event theory usually focus on the autonomous status that sounds manifest from the things in the world. Conversely, when we hear sounds, we hear what and where they are sounding even in those theories that I will call detached-sound theories; in hearing them we hear how different materials create different sounds. Within the different positions of the event theory to pure-event or acousmatic proposal, the importance and role that the material has in the creation of diverse sounds does not always seem to be recognized. In this paper, I therefore aim to show how the materiality of resonating bodies and objects is given in all forms of auditory experience, not until analyzed the differences between object and event accounts in the philosophy of sound.
... Στη Φυσική, η κατανόηση του ήχου μπορεί να συμβάλει σημαντικά στην κατανόηση τόσο της κλασικής όσο και της σύγχρονης Φυσικής. (Kane, 2014). Έτσι, εντοπίζοντας τις αντιλήψεις που εμποδίζουν τους μαθητές από τη σωστή κατανόηση των ηχητικών φαινομένων είναι πολύτιμη και αξίζει μια κεντρική θέση στο πρόγραμμα σπουδών της Φυσικής. ...
Over the past few years, students' perceptions of various science concepts and phenomena have been identified and recorded. However, research that studies the perceptions and scientific knowledge of primary school students on topics related to the concept of sound is particularly limited. As a research approach, a systematic literature review highlighted 20 articles from reputable international journals, indexed by Scopus, Google Scholar, Elsevier, Springer Link, and Eric, which analyze students' perceptions and scientific knowledge of the concept of sound. This study examined the studies according to their general characteristics, consisting of publication type, publication year, and research approach. The results will form the basis for concluding the situation in contemporary research and also for the formation of proposals for future research in the field of application and learning of the concept of sound in education.
... Στη Φυσική, η κατανόηση του ήχου μπορεί να συμβάλει σημαντικά στην κατανόηση τόσο της κλασικής όσο και της σύγχρονης Φυσικής. (Kane, 2014). Έτσι, εντοπίζοντας τις αντιλήψεις που εμποδίζουν τους μαθητές από τη σωστή κατανόηση των ηχητικών φαινομένων είναι πολύτιμη και αξίζει μια κεντρική θέση στο πρόγραμμα σπουδών της Φυσικής. ...
Κατά το πέρασμα των τελευταίων χρόνων, έχουν εντοπιστεί και καταγραφεί οι αντιλήψεις των μαθητών για διάφορες έννοιες και φαινόμενα των Φυσικών Επιστημών. Ωστόσο, είναι ιδιαίτερα περιορισμένη η έρευνα που μελετά τις αντιλήψεις και την επιστημονική γνώση των μαθητών πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης για θέματα που αφορούν την έννοια του ήχου. Ως ερευνητική προσέγγιση χρησιμοποιήθηκε η συστηματική ανασκόπηση βιβλιογραφίας η οποία ανέδειξε 20 άρθρα από έγκριτα διεθνή περιοδικά, ευρετηριασμένα από το Scopus, το Google Scholar, την Elsevier, το Springer Link και την Eric, το οποία αναλύουν τις αντιλήψεις και την επιστημονική γνώση των μαθητών στην έννοια του ήχου. Αυτή η μελέτη ανέλυσε τις έρευνες σύμφωνα με τα γενικά χαρακτηριστικά τους που αποτελούνται από τον τύπο της δημοσίευσης, το έτος δημοσίευσης και την ερευνητική προσέγγιση. Τα αποτελέσματα θα αποτελέσουν τη βάση για εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων αναφορικά με την κατάσταση στη σύγχρονη έρευνα αλλά και για την σχηματισμό προτάσεων για μελλοντική έρευνα στο πεδίο της εφαρμογής και εκμάθησης της έννοιας του ήχου στην εκπαίδευση.
... In French the term was first used by composer Pierre Schaffer in the 1960s to refer to the disorienting experience of listening to musique concrète, and then by composer Michel Chion to refer to offscreen sound in cinema. SeeKane 2014 andPettman 2017. ...
... En cuanto a la escucha reducida, que tiene una importancia excepcional en la historia de las reflexiones sobre la escucha (Kane, 2014), se trata de una escucha que se orienta a producir una descripción de los sonidos resistiendo las asociaciones semánticas que los mismos puedan tener en la cultura y su conexión con la fuente sonora. En tal sentido, considero que es conveniente caracterizar a este modo como un tipo muy particular de escucha funcional-semántica-crítica: se trata de una escucha atenta a las relaciones entre los sonidos, consciente de sus posibles descripciones verbales, pero que juzga la adecuación de tales descripciones en tanto formas de caracterizarlos. ...
En este artículo propongo un análisis de modos de escucha anclado en la semiótica de Charles S. Peirce y evalúo la conmensurabilidad de este modelo con dos abordajes recientes de la misma problemática (Santaella, 2017; Tuuri y Eerola, 2012). El modelo operativo llamdo “nonágono semiótico” (Guerri et al., 2016; Guerri, 2020) me permite describir nueve modos de eucha y explicitar sus relaciones lógicas en forma de un diagrama. El modelo es adoptado aquí desde una aproximación personal, en la que propongo incorporar los desarrollos tardíos de Peirce sobre su noción del interpretante y los universos de existencia (Jappy, 2017). El carácter diagramático del nonágono semiótico enfatiza el aspecto procesual de la semiosis, evitando el carácter estático de las propuestas taxonómicas. El modelo de la escucha resultante ha sido empleado para tareas de análisis de producciones artísticas en contextos de enseñanza universitaria (Llobet Vallejos et al., 2021) y para el desarrollo de propuestas curatoriales que parten de la apropiación artística de materiales de archivo (Álvarez et al., 2021). Al mismo tiempo, la aproximación personal al nonágono semiótico de la que parte sugiere nuevas líneas teóricas de investigación sobre las aplicaciones de esta metodología y sobre sus bases en la semiótica peirceana.
The expanding fields and practices of technology-based music have significantly evolved from their early beginnings in electroacoustic and acousmatic music to contemporary practices. This chapter explores the historical and technical developments that have shaped these practices, focusing on the manipulation and combination of recorded sounds and the creation of new sound worlds through the use of emerging technologies and the shifts in creative thinking they engender. The term 'post-acousmatic' is introduced as a methodological device to describe new developments that diverge from traditional historical trajectories. The chapter examines the role of conceptualism in the evolution of technology-based music, emphasising the importance of cultural context and the democratisation of music-making through access to technology. In the second part of the paper findings from a research project on technology-based creative practices among the younger generation of Norwegian musicians, composers, and sound artists are presented. This is the first ethnologically-informed music research project in Norway seeking to garner such insights into the methods, knowledge development, and the social and artistic implications of creative sound practitioners' work.
Este libro reúne algunas de las líneas de investigación que confluyen y se desarrollan en el marco del proyecto UBACyT “Posthumanidades materialistas: declinaciones ontológicas, epistemológicas y estéticas”, radicado en el Instituto de Filosofía de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. En el campo que explora el materialismo posthumano, una línea específica de investigación aborda el impacto de la crisis del concepto moderno de humanidad y de las disciplinas que se han desplegado a partir de él: las humanidades. Así pues, exploramos las líneas a partir de las cuales lo humano falla al querer constituirse como fundamento, los estudios humanísticos comienzan a dislocarse porque su objeto es demasiado reducido o exageradamente amplio y se configura un campo de problemas que es, más bien, el de lo posthumano/las posthumanidades.
They begin with a note, a chord, the tap of a button, or the triggering of a loop: through progressively layered textures, samples, and extended performance techniques, many solo performers on YouTube construct their cover songs piece by piece before the viewer’s eyes and ears. Combining virtuosity and novelty in a package ready-made for viral online popularity, this recent and rapidly growing internet phenomenon draws together traditions old and new, from the “one man band” of the nineteenth century, to the experimental live looping of 1980s performance art, to contemporary electronic music. Building on a number of recent studies that examine the affordances and restrictions of writing and performing music on various instruments, this article argues that these YouTube performers use both music-theoretical and instrumental expertise to convey complex textures through a minimal collection of musical materials. Through their sparse, economic construction, these intricate arrangements are each the end product of a careful analysis of each song, and they have much to teach us about the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic structures of popular music.
The electric guitar is one of the most important musical instruments and cultural artifacts of the 20th and 21st centuries and enjoys popularity worldwide. Designed for students, this Companion explores electric guitar technology and performance, and the instrument's history and cultural impact. Chapters focused on the social significance of the electric guitar draw attention to the ways in which gender and race have shaped and been shaped by it, the ecology of electric guitar manufacturing, and the participation of electric guitarists in online communities. Contributions on electric guitar history stretch the chronology backwards in time and broaden our ideas of what belongs in that history, and those addressing musical style investigate the cultural value of virtuosity while providing material analysis of electric guitar technique. The Companion's final section considers the electric guitar's global circulation, particularly in Africa, the Afro-Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.
Meta-Xenakis offers readers a comprehensive collection of insights into the history, works and legacy of Iannis Xenakis, one of the twentieth century’s most significant creative figures. It presents a transcontinental engagement with his life and output, focusing as much on the impact of the questions he posed as on the accomplishments of his body of work.
This volume evolved out of the multi-modal, international Meta-Xenakis Consortium’s artistic and scholarly events commemorating his centenary. Informative and comprehensive, contributions span subjects including music composition, creative pedagogy, aesthetics, game theory, architecture, and the social and political contexts in which Xenakis operated. The book is organized in eight sections, centered on different facets of Xenakis’s work and reception. It includes a digital archive of audio and visual media from the events staged throughout 2022, as well as computer software.
Bringing into conversation the diverse perspectives and insights of researchers, musicians and artists, this volume serves as a foundational resource for future research on the life and work of Xenakis. It will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners across a range of disciplines including music, architecture, cybernetics and computation, and the digital arts.
By phenomenology, we mean the philosophical school founded at the beginning of the twentieth century by Edmund Husserl and further developed by Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and many others up to the present day. In this book, our aim is not to present elaborate and detailed phenomenological investigations; we are simply concerned with the application of phenomenology to the description of sonic environments. Indeed, as we intend to show and justify in this section, the methodological procedures and outcomes of phenomenological investigations offer valuable tools for describing sonic environments. What, then, are these tools offered by the phenomenological method? After a brief introduction to phenomenology, we will list and explain them.
This paper offers an acoustemological exploration of a set of taped interviews on the subject of witchcraft made in the 1960s and 1970s by historian and ethnomusicologist Cesare Bermani in the village of Villa Zaccheo (Abruzzo, Italy). Bermani’s extraordinary research has resulted in a celebrated monograph as well as more than 90 hours of taped interviews and songs made available through the Archivio Cesare Bermani in Orta San Giulio (Novara, Italy). Beginning with a few examples from Bermani’s taped interviews (which we transcribe and thickly describe so as to render their overall aural effect), we investigate the role of feeling and listening in the interviewees’ perception of witches. In particular, we observe the way interviewees recount the role of hearing in their encounters with witches (and the particular declination of “acousmatic” listening that results from it), as well as the interviewees’ complex relationship to the recording apparatus and microphone. We then excavate the importance of the legal and conceptual category of “hearsay” in the long political history of European witchcraft, and point out some of the long-standing political implications of this category for recent oral histories. Finally, we offer some preliminary conclusions on the ways in which voice, listening, recording technology and language (Italian as well as dialect), as well as shifting constructions of gender, combine to render the figure of the witch in oral history, in the hope of laying the groundwork for future re-evaluations of the relationship of sound, media, and the construction of the witch.
Hearing is an intricate but delicate modality of sensory perception, continuously enfolded in the surroundings in which it takes place. While passive in its disposition, it is integral to the movement and fluctuations of one’s environment. Always attuned to the present and immersed in the murmur of its background, hearing remains a situated perception but fundamentally overarching and extended into the open. It is an immanent modality of being in and with the world. It is also the ultimate juridical act, a sense-making activity that adjudicates and informs the spatio-temporal acoustics of law and justice.
This collection gathers multidisciplinary contributions on the relationship between law and hearing, the human vocalisations and non-human echolocations, the spatial and temporal conditions in which hearing takes place, as well as the forms of order and control that listening entails. Contributors explore, challenge and expand the structural and sensorial qualities of law, and recognise how hearing directs us to perceiving and understanding the intrinsic acoustic sphere of simultaneous relations, which challenge and break the normative distinctions that law informs and maintains. In exploring the ambiguous, indefinable and unembodied nature of hearing, as well as its objects – sound and silence – this volume approaches it as both an ontological and epistemological device to think with and about law.
French electroacoustic music in the post-war decades has typically been associated with a high modernism that spurned popular or mass culture. This article situates electroacoustic music in the late 1960s and 1970s in relation to the transformation of the cultural field in this period, which unsettled clear divisions between high and low cultures. Attending in particular to the question of subjectivity as it appears in the theoretical writings of the composers Pierre Schaeffer and François Bayle, the article aligns Bayle's thinking with that of contemporary writers including Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes, who launched a critique of the Enlightenment subject. This theoretical nexus suggests that Bayle's L’Expérience acoustique (1969–1972) posits a form of subjectivity closer to the psychedelic counterculture than to the sober listening of Schaeffer's writings. In unsettling the Schaefferian listening subject, the piece opens itself to a heterogeneous listening, the social consequences of which remain significant today.
This chapter examines how the pre-linguistic, mobile, animated body, which repeatedly enacts the sense of “I can,” lies at the root of higher-level capacities, even rational ones, as Sheets-Johnstone, Schutz, and Husserl recognize. For Cox, through the animated body we metaphorically describe music as “moving to a climax” or hitting “high” notes, and our bodies mimetically absorb music through passive syntheses. Besides bodiliness, the holism of experiencing music includes cognitive and emotional intentional apprehension, physiological changes and awarenesses, the passive synthesis of tones into patterns, one’s history and culture—leading to appreciation of the musical expression of emotion. The chapter develops the six features of the cognitive style of the musical province of meaning that includes withdrawal from pragmatic mastery, receptivity, and extended attention to the non-conceptual communication of others (composers or performers). Music exemplifies the mutual tuning-in at the root of We-relationships. Further, the mimetic, passive synthetic linkages occurring in musical communication parallel the pre-reflective interruption of the other evoking our Thou-orientation. Moreover, the multiple musical asymmetries in music, such as that I am better attuned to another than to myself and that another’s polythically unfolding stream of consciousness can never be adequately captured monothetically, find parallels in everyday intersubjectivity.
I couldn't tell who was colored and who was white’, admitted the African American trumpet player Roy Eldridge after being submitted to a so-called blindfold test by the white critic Leonard Feather in 1951. Feather was happy that the blindfold test duped a prominent Black musician, because it proved his point about the fundamental colourblindness of music and listening. Through close reading of the source material, this article provides the full context for this infamous case and shows how the blindfold test was a product of transnational discourses of colourblindness, primitivism, ‘reverse racism’, and technological mediation. Building on current research in racialized practices of listening in musicology and sound studies, and mobilizing interventions from critical race studies, the article contends that acousmatic techniques of listening often promote a colourblind ideology invested in whiteness, which remains hegemonic in music culture.
This article argues that the strengths and problems of Shawn Loht's Phenomenology of Film: A Heideggerian Account of the Film Experience (2017) are rooted in its method, which derives from a specific interpretation of Heidegger's existential analytic and from the critical strategy implemented by Heidegger – and thus later adopted by his readers and applied to various disciplinary domains – in his polemical engagement with the history of philosophy. Central to this method is what I refer to as the ontic-ontological schema, and the article maps out the ways in which it operates in Loht's book: how it shapes his critical intervention into film studies and his claims about film ontology and spectatorship. My argument is that the ontic-ontological schema, while allowing the author to make interesting inroads into debates in film-philosophy, nonetheless undermines the coherence and efficacy of his claims about the cinematic experience as well as his attempts to mobilize these claims in the analysis of specific films. That is, Loht's disciplinary application of the ontic-ontological schema makes for a compelling discursive polemic, but it also exposes a crucial conceptual incompatibility in the work's configuration of and navigation between ontology, aesthetics, and criticism.
This article explores the vocal human–machine relations embedded in text-to-speech (TTS) generators. Retracing the human sources behind the synthetic speech and tracking the remediation of the voice by the machine-learning algorithm, it argues that artificial intelligence (AI) speaking agents such as Siri and Alexa, as well as other TTS acts such as TikTok’s, are performing algorithmic ventriloquism. Speaking mechanically with the voices of professional voiceover artists, AI speech technologies algorithmically manipulate these voices, thus generating personas that hold an interconnected chain of tensions between the embodied and the virtual, the particular and the general, the human and the non-human, as well as between speech and writing. Algorithmic ventriloquism serves as an analytical framework to tie the techno-vocalic operation of the TTS system with its cultural, economic, philosophical, and sociolinguistic predicaments. The last section discusses the implications of algorithmic ventriloquism beyond the realm of the voice.
This paper sheds light on the connections between musical undergrounds and the global emergence of ‘goblin mode’ as a political aesthetic. In March 2022 The Guardian published an article discussing the popularity of a new locution emerging on social media: ‘goblin mode’. Characterized by a 'complete lack of aesthetic' and vaguely pointing towards ‘the opposite of trying to better oneself’, ‘goblin mode’ was linked to embracing dishevelment, rejecting societal expectations, and giving in to the heavy consumption of junk food and digital content in reaction to the pandemic obsession for domestic and personal improvement.
During the nineteenth century, many heard the afterlife before they could see it. These clairaudient forays took place in the context of spiritualism, a religious movement that facilitated communication between the living and the dead. Although the senses were important to spiritualism, sound was especially crucial for developing cosmologies of the afterlife. Sound can have powerful affective effects, especially in the realm of religion. In the case of spiritualism, however, notions of sound are complicated because of the inclusion of clairaudient and acousmatic sounds. This article analyzes spiritualist soundscapes in terms of acoustemologies, using personal narratives and instructional materials to demonstrate how spiritualists developed a sense of space through sound. Not only does my analysis demonstrate the importance of sound to these spiritual communities, but it also shows that spiritualist conceptions of sound require a special understanding of the nature of sound.
The research project "Acousmatic Foley" addresses common traits between foley art and Concrete Music, based on the idea that the foley artist is an acousmatic listener and, in turn, that acousmatic listening is a form of fiction. In this line, the study argues that both fields have similar treatment of the "sonorous object". For this purpose, the research builds on two lines of thought: the "son-en-scène" and the "mise-en-son". Firstly, the "son-en-scène" focuses on the sounds of the filmic miseen-scène (and its sound props), from very early cases to contemporary instances. The focus on these sound-props provides a perspective of sound for film that emphasizes its role as a tool of fiction and, thus, foley as the craft that leads to that experience. Secondly, "mise-en-son" sheds light on the making of the sound itself by exploring the concept of musical gesture. Either in contexts in which the musical gesture is visible (as with instruments), more cryptic (as with electronic devices), or completely delegated (as in acousmatic music), gesture can be seen a form of agency. Given that foley consists of maneuvering a sound-prop, gesture is as central to foley as it is to musical practices. This paper focus on the idea that gesture carries the same conception as the "sonorous object", that of an "intentional unit". In line with this, and in particular when of acousmatic nature, the research argues that the sonorous object is analogous to the sound-prop. In the end, these two lines of thought (son-en-scènce and mise-en-son) bridge the poietic and esthetic, as in Nattiez's semiotic distinction, towards an experience of "acousmatic foley".
El presente artículo es un acercamiento a la poesía del escritor salvadoreño Jorge Galán (1973). Aunque es un autor prolífico que ganó algunos de los premios más prestigiosos de poesía –el Adonáis y el Jaime Gil de Biedma –, ha recibido poca atención por parte de la crítica. En este ensayo relaciono violencia y sonido. A partir del concepto de sonido acusmático, aquel cuya causa y origen se desconoce, analizo la violencia en El Salvador como el trasfondo histórico y social que permea el mundo poético de Galán. Al explorar el paisaje sonoro que se evoca en su poesía y la presencia de lo acusmático, argumento que la violencia no es solamente un eje temático, sino que funciona como un mecanismo que articula su lenguaje poético. De esta manera, delimito las aristas fundamentales de su poética: la retórica del distanciamiento y la cercanía, la conjunción de miradas entre el niño-poeta y el poeta-adulto, y la idea de la poesía como eco del universo. Presento, también, cómo el poeta construye una poesía de defensa de lo humano.
Towards Polysensory Perception in Literary Studies. On Aleksandra Kremer’s Book The Sound of Modern Polish Poetry. Performance and Recording after World War II The article reviews of Aleksandra Kremer’s book The Sound of Modern Polish Poetry. Performance and Recording after World War II (2021), which is the first to describe and scrutinise the phenomenon related to the formation of the modern culture of poetry audio realisations in Poland during the second half of the twentieth century. This phenomenon relates to the growing interest of poets in authorial audio realisations of their poetry that crosses the boundaries of the text by harnessing new technologies to distribute, manipulate and reproduce sound. This review aims to situate the book in a context of studies on the relationship between literature and sound in the age of secondary orality and to present its potential influence on the discussion regarding the function of the latest literature in the contemporary audio-visual culture.
Halk anlatılarının çoğunda anlam yüklü özel sesler karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışma halk anlatıları içinde özel bir yere sahip olan, üretildikleri ve anlatıldıkları bağlamlarda kutsal kabul edilen menkıbelerde, velilerin özel sesleri deneyimleme süreçlerine odaklanmaktadır. Kutsal metinler olan menkıbelerde ses olgusu ele alınarak sesin dinî ve mistik alandaki algılanışı ve işlevlerini tespit etmek amaçlanmış; bunun için farklı tarikat çevrelerinde üretilmiş olan sınırlı sayıda menakıpnameden örnekleme yapılmıştır. Bu makalede sesin iki özel biçimi; vantrilok ses ve akuzmatik ses ele alınmıştır. Menkıbelerde yer alan vantrilok seslerin genellikle velinin içinden konuşan bir Tanrı’ya işaret edip veliye Tanrısal bir güç kazandırdığı anlaşılmıştır. Akuzmatik seslerin ise velilerin, fiziksel varlığı olmayanlarla iletişime geçme gücünü yansıttığı; özellikle Tanrı’nın ve peygamberin, büyük bir veli gibi ölmüş kutsal şahsiyetlerin seslerini duyma deneyimleriyle velilerin inananları üzerinde kendisine ayrıcalıklı bir yer edindiği ortaya çıkmıştır. Özellikle belli dinî gruplar çevresinde bu menkıbeleri duyan/okuyan bireyler Tanrı’yla konuştuğuna inanılan velinin sorgulamadan itaat eden bağlıları hâline gelebilmiştir. Velinin sözünü Tanrı sözü ile eşleyen, hatta kimi durumlarda Tanrı sözünden bile daha geçerli olarak aktaran menkıbeler aracılığı ile velinin sesine/söylediklerine itiraz en başta ortadan kaldırılmıştır. Bütün bu süreçleri menakıpnamelerin içeriği ortaya koymaktadır ve bu etkiyi sağlayan sesin gücüdür. Bu makalede, sadece menkıbelerde yer alan vantrilok ve akuzmatik seslere odaklanılmış ve sesin bu anlatılarda derin ve güçlü anlamları olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
The Shout (1978), directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, is a horror film that centres upon a man, Charles Crossley, capable of executing a shout so intense that its effects overwhelm those who hear it. As the film’s title suggests, acoustic phenomena are central to the narrative. Another key protagonist, Anthony Fielding, is an avant-garde composer. He experiments with various noises as he makes works of musique concrète . Photographic reproductions of paintings by Francis Bacon are displayed in Fielding’s recording studio and, on one level, symbolize his sources of inspiration. Bacon’s works, however, also inform the mise-en-scène of The Shout , comprising part of the fabric of the film. They are not simple props. In this essay, I will argue that the film’s aesthetic, including its soundtrack and mise-en-scène, should be understood as a form of art writing that imitates elements of Bacon’s aesthetic, an aesthetic I argue is queer and rooted in the artist’s interest in bdsm .
The critical examination in this paper should point to a shift in a perspective in understanding musique concrète (concrete music) in relation to its historical evaluation, viewing it as a music of technology. The paper is based on the hypothesis that each technology in its materiality and functionality shapes the outcomes that arise from it, which is ultimately aimed at looking for the ‘human’ in the ‘composer-technology’ dichotomy. That is where the reshaping of the musical experience takes place. But it should be noted that the technology share will be questioned through only a few aspects of concrete music, which is why there is an open possibility for further research problems.
This chapter explores the architectural staging of acoustic listening environments and the various ways in which they have cultivated and aestheticized ambient listening—from the antique amphitheater and the medieval cathedral to the modern concert hall. I introduce the term enhanced reverberation as an early pre-modern paradigm for the staging of ambient listening by enveloping listeners in a field of free-floating sonic matter. Subsequently, I explore how Wagner’s famous hidden orchestra in Bayreuth came to constitute a standard model for the modern acoustic staging of listening by producing a similar ambient effect of being enveloped in a synthetic, mediatized ‘effect-space’ of acoustic immanence—but now by quite other means of an ‘acousmatic veiling’ of sound sources and the apparatus of production.KeywordsAcoustic environmentsEnhanced reverberationAcoustic immanence
This chapter introduces a basic distinction between environmental and surrounding sound. Ambient effects of surroundability and centralization not only entail a basic environmental dimension of sound. They also involve an aesthetic shift from environmental to surrounding sound. On this basis, I explore how sonic objectivity—the morpho-material quality of a sonic event that it emerges and unfolds independently of a guiding subjective intentionality—can be distinguished as a basic onto-aesthetic feature of environmental sound. But in order to unfold its unobtrusive surroundability and ambient effects of centralization and being-in, before environmental sound can turn into surrounding sound, it must furthermore reduce the presence of confronting objects and isolated figures and transform the objective sonic environment into an objectless, a-figurative continuum.KeywordsObjectivityObjectlessnessA-figurative continuum
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