Listening to Noise and Silence Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art

Listening to Noise and Silence engages with the emerging practice of sound art and the concurrent development of a discourse and theory of sound. In this original and challenging work, Salomé Voegelin immerses the reader in concepts of listening to sound artwork and the everyday acoustic environment, establishing an aesthetics and philosophy of sound and promoting the notion of a sonic sensibility. A multitude of sound works are discussed, by lesser known contemporary artists and composers (for example Curgenven, Gasson and Federer), historical figures in the field (Artaud, Feldman and Cage), and that of contemporary canonic artists such as Janet Cardiff, Bill Fontana, Bernard Parmegiani, and Merzbow. Informed by the ideas of Adorno, Merleau-Ponty and others, the book aims to come to a critique of sound art from its soundings rather than in relation to abstracted themes and pre-existing categories. Listening to Noise and Silence broadens the discussion surrounding sound art and opens up the field for others to follow.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part one Listening

            Being Honeyed

            To Listen

            Dynamic Things and Places

            Critique of a Remote Critic

            Listening to the Soundscape Recorded

            Listening to the Radio

            Conclusion: Sonic Solitude

Part two Noise

            Bad Taste

            Noisy Non-Sense

            How can you hear it when you do not know what you are listening for? -   Noise and Modernism

            Noise and Postmodernism

            Sonic Noise

            Conclusion: Noisy Voices

Part three Silence

            Conceptual Silence

            When there is nothing to hear you start hearing things

            The silent "I"/ Sonic Subjectivity

            Crickets

            Silent Duration

            Symbolic, Semiotic and Social Sound

            Moments of Coincidence

            Radiophonic Silence

            Conclusion: Silence as Context of Auditory Aesthetics

Part four Time and Space

            Sitting in Rooms

            Resonating Places; Sounding Time

            Geography of Timespace

            Inhabiting a Playfull Agonism

            Building Sonic Bridges and Towns

            A Sonic Sensibility for New Media Art

            Narrating temporal places/ migration

            The Timespace of Radio  

            Conclusion: Into the Now of Listening

Part five Now

            Sonic Pasts: an Afterthought

            Perception and Sensation

            Sound as ‘Pathetic Trigger'

            The Duration of Perception

            The Refrain of Now

Bibliography

List of Works

Notes

Index