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josieholtzman

francisco lópez [ essays // environmental sound matter ] - 0 views

  • The birdsong we hear in the forest is as much a consequence of the bird as of the trees or the forest floor. If we are really listening, the topography, the degree of humidity of the air or the type of materials in the topsoil are as essential and definitory as the sound-producing animals that inhabit a certain space.
  • B. Krause to the proposal of a 'niche hypothesis' (3, 4, 5) in which different aural niches are basically defined in terms of frequency bands of the sound spectrum that are occupied by different species.
  • upon the explicit intention of expanding classical bioacoustics from an auto-ecological (single-species) to a more systemic perspective, considering assemblages of sound-producing animal species at an ecosystem level.
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  • appraisal of other -sonic- components that are not reductible to the former. As soon as the call is in the air, it doesn't belong to the frog that produced it anymore.
  • No matter how good they can be, recordings cannot replace the 'real' experience.
  • Different microphones 'hear' so differently that they can be considered as a first transformational step with more dramatic consequences than, for example, a further re-equalization of the recordings in the studio. Even although we don't substract or add anything we cannot avoid having a version of what we consider as reality.
  • Although I appreciate very much the multitude of new sound nuances and the 'spaceness' provided by these technological developments, I don't have a special interest in pursuing 'realism'. Moreover, I believe these techniques actually work through hyper-realism
  • Now that we have digital recording technology (with all its concomitant sound quality improvements) we can realize more straightforwardly that the microphones are -they always have been- our basic interfaces in our attempt at aprehending the sonic world around us, and also that they are non-neutral interfaces.
  • the armchair environmental movement'
  • There is another seemingly unavoidable obstacle in this attempt at portraying aural reality: sound editing. Whereas the 'microphone interface' transfigures the spatial and material characteristics of sound, editing affects its temporality.
  • As I see it, this is a futile attempt to reproduce the world, that tends to become a kind of commodity directed to sofisticated entertainment or other forms of pragmatism. In its essence, a modern consequence of the same kind of mentality that long ago led to the creation of zoos.
  • We are much less inert for transciption and reproduction than the machines we have supposedly invented for these purposes. Compared to a microphone, we can either have a much more striking perception of such a human sonic intrusion or not perceive it at all.
  • Do we always realize that there's some distant traffic noise when our perception is focused on an insect call?
  • I don't believe in such a thing as an 'objective' aprehension of the sonic realiy
  • Not only do different people listen differently, but also the very temporality of our presence in a place is a form of editing.
  • Our idea of the sonic realiy, even our fantasy about it, is the sonic reality each one of us has.
  • I claim for the right to be 'unrealistic'
  • In the case of the 'Acoustic Ecology movement', although the scope of its activities is larger and there is a greater focus on descriptive aspects of sound itself (see, e.g., ref. 18), its approach essentially relies upon a representational / relational conception, sometimes also leading to 'encourage listeners to visit the place' (19).
  • I'm thus straightforwardly attaching to the original 'sound object' concept of P. Schaeffer and his idea of 'reduced listening'
  • The richness of this sound matter in nature is astonishing, but to appreciate it in depth we have to face the challenge of profound listening. We have to shift the focus of our attention and understanding from representation to being
  • When the representational / relational level is emphasized, sounds acquire a restricted meaning or a goal, and this inner world is dissipated.
  • Environmental acousmatics. The hidden cicada paradox Acousmatics, or the rupture of the visual cause-effect connection between the sound sources and the sounds themselves (22), can contribute significantly to the 'blindness' of profound listening. La Selva, as most tropical rain forests, constitutes a strong paradigm of something we could call 'environmental acousmatics'.
  • What I find remarkably striking is how the comprehension of virtually all approaches to nature sound recording is so rarely referred to the sonic matter they are supposedly dealing with, but rather to whatever other non-sonic elements of the experience of the -thus documented- place.
  • In my conception, the essence of sound recording is not that of documenting or representing a much richer and more significant world, but a way to focus on and access the inner world of sounds.
  • What I'm defending here is the transcendental dimension of the sound matter by itself.
  • A non-bucolic broad-band world Another widespread conception about nature sound environments regards them as 'quiet places', peaceful islands of quietude in a sea of rushing, noisy man-driven habitats.
  • As I see it, this certainly contributes to expand our aural understanding of nature, not denying quietude, but embracing a more complete conception
  • when our listening move away from any pragmatic representational 'use', and I claim for the right to do so with freedom (28).
  • I also defend the preservation and enhancement of the diversity of man-made sound environments and devices. The value we assign to sound environments is a complex issue we shouldn't simplify; under some circumstances, nature can also be considered as an intrusion in environments dominated by man-made sounds. In this sense, my approach is as futurist as it is environmentalist, or, in broader terms, independent of these categorizations.
  • I think it's a sad simplification to restrict ourselves to this traditional concept to 'find' music in nature.
  • I don't subscribe the coupling of nature to these schemes, by way of -for example- a search for melodic patterns, comparisons between animal sounds and musical instruments, or 'complementing' nature sounds with 'musical' ones (5, 25, 26). To me, a waterfall is as musical as a birdsong.
  • music is an aesthetic (in its widest sense) perception / understanding / conception of sound. It's our decision -subjective, intentional, non-universal, not necessarily permanent- what converts nature sounds into music.
  • sonic homogeneization, thus pursuing the conservation of sound diversity in the world.
  • To me, attaining this musical state requires a profound listening, an immersion into the inside of the sound matter.
john roach

Aquaphoneia: Alchemy of Sound and Matter - Sonic Field - 1 views

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    "Sound can be assumed by its transformative properties and processes, as a form of alchemy, a transmutation both tangible and intangible, psychic and physical, where every echo or object is processed in terms of its most primal roots, in terms of deep relationships within nature's elements. In that way, resonance and materiality configure universes, which no longer have to choose between fixed states, but rather stay open to the processes that arise in-between, as a poetic interstice of sonic existence. Directed by the artists Navid Navab, and Michael Montanaro, Aquaphoneia is an interesting installation debutant Ars Electronica 2016: Alchemists of our Time, in which those vibrant process get explored, allowing time and matter to converge in a transmutation of sonic signals; waves and corpuscles between the liquidity of sound and the sound through liquids."
john roach

Materials of Sound: Sound As (More Than) Sound by Caleb Kelly - 1 views

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    By examining the materials that produce sound within contemporary art, we can approach sounding works not only from the perspective of "sound as sound" or "sound in itself" but rather as "sound as more than sound." Sound can never be without a history, culture, or political situation, and by approaching sounding practices in the same manner as we critically approach contemporary art practices, we allow matter to matter.
john roach

This Dark Matter Radio Could Tune Into New Physics - 0 views

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    "Researchers are hoping to "hear" dark matter particles using a super-cooled experiment in California."
john roach

Sound Art Matters, Full Lectures by Brian Kane, Frances Dyson, Wolfgang Ernst and Cathy... - 0 views

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    "The Faculty of Arts of Aarhus Universitet has uploaded videos of four full conferences from the past Sound Art Matters Conference 2016, covering sound art from different approaches as exposed by well-known scholars."
john roach

Ricciarda Belgiojoso about Urban Soundscapes | Well Designed and Built - 0 views

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    "This paper would like to draw your attention to a matter that regards us all, every day: the sound of the urban environment. We are used to looking around us, we are less used to listening to what happens around us. And yet, the noises we produce reveal our way of life, and learning to master them is a necessity."
john roach

'Max Neuhaus - Times Square, Time Piece Beacon' [book review] « Continuo's we... - 0 views

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    Neuhaus appears rather liberal on matters of sound and noise, not surprisingly for someone who started organizing sound events in the 1960s with the LISTEN! Series, 1966-76 - these promenade tours without commentary consisted in walks to inaccessible indu
john roach

Scientists' Anxieties and Sonic Wonders - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    Events and reading matter at the intersection of science and culture.
john roach

What if you could listen in on the chemical communication within your body? - We Make M... - 0 views

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    "Although the transformation of the functional state of the living organism into sound was an important dimension of the work, the artists and designers were also interested in looking at the processes and authoritative gestures that legitimise the collection of personal information and how informed consent is attained and defined. In the age of the quantified self, what does it mean to donate biological data? How much does it (or should it) matter to us that we can keep control over it? Does this biological data have more value for us than other types of data?"
john roach

FOLEY Rated R (for Vegetable Violence) - Cook's Science - 0 views

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    "Crack-k-squutch! A zombie's head explodes in a loud, disgusting gush of decaying brain matter, and the audience gleefully recoils. When it comes to Hollywood, in an era of digital special effects and computer-generated monsters, one of the last provinces of traditional analog elements is Foley art: the sounds that are added to movie scenes to give extra vividness to a head thwack, a creaking chair, or just the ever-present sounds of walking. These sounds are still created using physical props-and very often, those props come from the kitchen."
john roach

Sensuality Matters | The Journal of Music: News, Reviews & Opinion | Music Jobs & Oppor... - 0 views

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    "There is a long line of theories claiming that we have reached the end of art, but they are forgetting something, writes Joanna Demers"
john roach

The People Who Decide What the Inside of a Human Body Sounds Like - Atlas Obscura - 0 views

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    "Quick-what does a brain sound like? Time's up! The answer is, of course, "nothing." If you said "lightning and sparks," though, you're forgiven. Odds are good that every "trip" you've taken inside the brain has featured a CGI image of squiggly gray matter, accompanied by the sizzling sound of electricity. This and other sonic clichés-blood whooshing through veins, organs squishing and pulsing-are as much a part of a certain type of hour-long TV drama as a plot twist before a commercial break. They're also a staple in documentaries, where such sounds accompany visuals depicting smaller dramas, like the journey of a blood cell, or the ravages of puberty."
john roach

Making Worlds: Chicago Sound as Sculpture - 1 views

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    "Sculpture-situated within the sensibilities of space, embodiment, and the physical world-offers a richly speculative arena for experimentation with materials and technology. The continuing expansion of practices reminds us that sculpture no longer resides in a world of "things": contemporary physics now reformulates "solid" matter as process and flow, foundational concepts for art are now redefined or dismantled, and virtuality often stands in for the "real." The implementation of sound created by artists as sculpture has contributed robust tools and a new sense of identity for these changing boundaries. Yet while sound has become almost ubiquitous in contemporary art, it has garnered scant scholarship, and its artists are often neglected. "
john roach

Materiality of Sound: E. Domnitch & D. Gelfand, A. Smirnov, xname - 0 views

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    A presentation of artists exploring sound and materiality: "Materiality of Sound: In this chapter, we will present projects that get closer to the sonic phenomenon directly presented on stage in front of our eyes and hears as a form of scientific and artistic experiment. The materiality of sound, intended as a specific focus on using principles of the physical world to initiate a new listening into the matter, reveals the vibrational fundaments constituting our universe and unfolds the state of inter-connectivity in nature performing forces pervading multiple domains at the same time in the same space."
john roach

Listening is Making Sense - Everyday Listening - Sound Art, Sound Installatio... - 1 views

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    "Listening is Making Sense lets you listen in on vibrations carried through thick wooden beams. The only way to experience the installation is by getting into physical contact with the resonant matter, by placing your ear directly on the wood."
john roach

Bosonica - Diana Salazar - 0 views

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    "In theoretical physics, 'Bosonic' refers to the original version of 'string theory', developed in the 1960s. Although the initial hypotheses behind Bosonic String Theory have since been expanded and modified, the underlying principle remains intact; that the various properties of matter and force can be a reflection of the ways in which a string vibrates. The oscillating properties of these hypothetical strings determine the properties of particles and all forms of energy. As such, the theory proposes that the entire world may be composed of these infinitely small vibrating 'strings'. Bosonica is a sonic exploration of the concepts behind this theory. The sound material which underpins the work is predominantly sourced from stringed instruments, in particular piano, guitar (acoustic and electric) and cello. At times the original properties of these vibrating strings are very present and recognisable, however the work explores increasing blurring and abstraction, creating new constructions from the original material and presenting to the listener dense and abstract dimensions. Despite this, the untreated instrumental material consistently returns as a reminder that it serves as the building block from which all other material is derived. The use of 5.1 spatialisation magnifies the perceived kinetic energy of material. Small gestural fragments are scattered over the 5.1 array to form accumulative trajectories of sound, and the listener becomes immersed in the dark abstract landscapes generated by the sounds of strings. The work was composed in 2009 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Manchester, UK. With thanks to Emilie Girard-Charest (cello) and Camilo Salazar (guitar)."
john roach

Expanding Radio. Ecological Thinking and Trans-scalar Encounters in Contemporary Radio ... - 0 views

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    "This thesis is an exploration of some of the discourses arising out of the current ecological crises (Haraway 2016; Horton 2017) and argues that radio art is a constructive method for opening out practices of listening, for helping move beyond anthropocentric dialogues, and simultaneously beyond the constraints of dominant modes of storytelling. Ecological Thinking (Code 2006) and concepts of Planetary Time (Dimock 2003) are a useful framework from which to view contemporary radio art practices because they accentuate long and complex networks of interconnectivity, not only within nature, but, more recently, between living beings, technology and the environment. By identifying the interconnectedness of radio and transmission, and the possibility for immersion not only in the content but the process of the medium itself, it is hoped that recognition will be given to the necessity to think ecologically (holistically) in order to create sustainable symbioses between humans, technology and the living and 'non-living' entities of the planet. I begin by providing an outline of anthropocene discourses intertwined with radio and radio art practice. Then I describe and contextualize the radio art work 'chorus duet for radio' (Donovan 2016), positioning it as an example of a collective, trans-scalar listening encounter. I move on to posit radio as a valuable medium from which to critique and disrupt masculinised and westernised (radio) histories, and as an outlet for feminist, queer, and speculative re-tellings of the past. History is viewed here in the same way as electromagnetic radiation: as matter to be untangled. Finally I use the garden radio art project Datscha Radio17 (Schaffner 2017) to give an overview of how radio can be implemented in an expanded way to examine many of the interconnected themes of this thesis: the anthropocene, radio art, ecology, human and more-than-human networks, listening, speculative storytelling, and disruption. This thesis is an explor
john roach

Feeling Music | Red Bull Music Academy Daily - 0 views

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    "For Alexiou, the immersive listening debate is easily put to rest. "Humans can hear down to roughly 20Hz. If you look at the frequency response of many headphones and some speakers, they often rate their range somewhere close to that. The reality, however, is, you can rarely have the power and privacy to be able to drive them appropriately. In the case of headphones, sound is only hitting your ears, not your body, something any sound system enthusiast knows the limitations of all too well. It's the feeling that matters.""
john roach

Brian Eno, Lee Smolin, and How the Universe Is Like the Ultimate Generative Music - 0 views

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    "I wondered why an artist like Brian would be interested in matters of spacetime and relativity. The more I got to know Brian, I knew it wasn't a time filler, or for his health. What I was about to discover during my two years in London was that Brian was something I've come to call a "sound cosmologist." He was investigating the structure of the universe, not inspired by music, but with music."
john roach

CABINET // Soothe Operator: Muzak and Modern Sound Art - 0 views

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    "In his 1967 address "The Eco-Logic of Muzak," for Muzak's Scientific Board of Advisers, Dr. James Keenan, an industrial psychologist from Stanford University, spoke of Muzak as being "synomorphic with the modern world and interrelated with all matters of time and place: Muzak helps human communities because it is a nonverbal symbolism for the common stuff of everyday living in the global village."1 Keenan characterizes Muzak not merely as background music, but as a "language" that builds utopias through sweet and soothing harmonies. "
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