Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

• 27. Issue 27 Issue 27

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  A Paleontology of Quiet (2014) author(s): Neil Verma published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
  This paper considers “close listening” in the context of classic America radio drama through a study of “The Thing on the Fourble Board,” a radio play by Wyllis Cooper. Although it is among the most esteemed works of dramatic audio in U.S. popular culture, the piece has seldom been engaged critically. Doing “readings” of radio drama is a rare activity to begin with, and this play is especially elusive because its features exceed the common preoccupations of theory of radio dramatic technique. Following Jonathan Sterne’s proposal to blend “sonic imaginations” with other fields of thought and practice, I take a new approach, heeding Cooper’s odd “geological” aesthetic and arguing that the play offers an idea of “auditory fossilization.” Building on some of my earlier work that considers classic radio drama as a mineralized transmission, I further propose the “sound fossil” as a heuristic to help us conceptualize the form as a whole as it exists in our time. This nearly extinct yet modern genre has always been a kind of objet sonore, surely, inasmuch as it occupies a “theater of the mind” whose pleasure rests on a disavowal of its own production, but radio drama is also increasingly a sonorous “thing,” defined by glitches and errors in the preserved audio that point toward a struggle against – and requirement of – materiality. According to this model, to critically engage with a recorded drama is to unearth these two underground counterpressures, and close listening is both a mode of reading and one of excavation.
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  Remaking Pittsburgh: Permaculture soundscapes (2014) author(s): Jeremy Woodruff published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
  In this essay I confront how sound art might make a contribution to groups practicing progressive ecology in a city as well as how that pursuit can enrich a sonic practice. As a result of research in permaculture gardening (a philosophy of ecological landscape design started in the late 70s) and ethnomusicology (especially on gamelan), I reimagined my creative process. I investigate whether it is possible with permaculture's philosophy to compose social connections, both in the imagination of sound and in the artwork's actual dissemination. I see how these structures impact the work's reception and the Hazelwood Food Forest (HFF) in Pittsburgh where the piece was developed. In this essay on my installation Gongburgh: Steeltown Forests I describe what my composition contributed and how that urban garden ensured a rich listening experience alongside other sound sources, including gamelan and steel factories. Gongburgh is an experiment in sustainable music making: in return for a (monetary) donation to the HFF on my website, listeners may download the forty-minute long composition that uses sound from the garden. In this way I promote the garden, but in return hope for repayment in organic food from the HFF as a form of worktrade. The sound of work in an urban garden versus that in a steel factory, in combination with gamelan music brings out novel similarities and differences between the sounds and, in turn, between ideas inherent in their social organization. This opens up political questions for both the garden and an anonymous listener. Further speculation on connections between specific permaculture principles and sound art emerge in a brief discussion of another one of my sound works, Phonosynthesis.
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  Music Dematerialized? (2014) author(s): Francisco Lopez published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
  The disappearance of the object seems to be a fait accompli in recorded commercial music; nobody cares anymore about the traditional physical carriers of audio. Perhaps radio broadcast was the first dematerialization of music. The online/cloud streaming can be seen as a further degree of dematerialized ownership which takes us back to the age-long situation of our hands (and our shelves) being empty of any imaginable materialized music.
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  MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS (2014) author(s): Olivia Lucas published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
  Perched on the fringe of the extreme metal underground and named after the brand of vintage amplifiers they use, the band Sunn O))) creates 90 minute mostly-improvised live sets that focus on bass and sub­-bass (20-60 Hz) tones, played at a volume of about 120 dB. With a motto of “Maximum Volume Yields Maximum Results,” loudness is their musical content, and the droning, low tones they project require multi-­sensory interpretation, as they are felt in the body as vibrations. This paper explores the experience of a Sunn 0))) concert, as it transgresses and dominates the listener’s body, controlling available sensory data. The heavily amplified low frequencies bring the listener's body into direct contact with the physical properties of sound, touching it with bone-­rattling vibrations. Cloaked in thick artificial fog, the means of sound production remain hidden. Furthermore, the sounds themselves rely more on effects pedals than on instrumental prowess; the plucking of a guitar string may supply the signal for several minutes of music. This combination of visual deprivation and aural/tactile overload enacts a ritual of sensory domination, to which the audience submits.
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  Sound and Narrative: Acousmatic composition as artistic research (2014) author(s): James Andean published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
  This paper will discuss acousmatic music as a simultaneously musical and narrative art form. Acousmatic narrative will be considered from the dual perspectives of the composer and the listener, and we will investigate some of the differences between these, and some of the mechanisms at play. A case will be made for the act of acousmatic composition as an ideal site for exploration and research into narrative processes. The composition and reception of the author's work Déchirure will be used as an illustrative example.
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