Sound as Material for Eco-technogenesis

This paper delineates the conceptual outcomes from a two-week intensive cross-disciplinary conversation between an art historian, an interaction designer, and an artist/engineer. With the aim of applying the concept of technogenesis to an exploration of sound as material for art and design, we consider sound as a material force within an ecosystem. Through this lens, sound produced by either life- or technological-forms allows us to consider the ecological impact and potential meanings of generated sound. Drawing on biosemiotics, we propose that the co-evolution of sound, technology, and environments, what we call eco-technogenesis, demands relational, and thus ethical, thinking. The rowdy krause, an autonomous sonic agent, designed by Kadish to identify and inhabit an acoustic niche within an ecosystem, serves as a case study for thinking through eco-technogenesis.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Megan Hines

David Kadish

Maja Fagerberg Ranten

Conference

Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 195-201

Affiliations

[0001]Department of Art

Stony Brook University

2224 Staller Center for the Arts

Stony Brook, NY 11794

United States

[0002]Robotics, Evolution, and Art Lab

IT University of Copenhagen

Rued Langgaards Vej 7

DK-2300 Copenhagen S

Denmark

[0003]Department of People and Technology

Roskilde University

Universitetsvej 1, 10.2,

DK-4000 Roskilde

Denmark

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.30

SO-VID: dffc1683-84e5-4bec-a2b4-1c5f33175045

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: RE:SOUND 2019 – 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology

Conference acronym: RE:SOUND 2019

Conference number: 8

Conference location: Aalborg, Denmark

Conference date: August 20-23, 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Media Art, Science, and Technology

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.30

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

G. Bateson 1972 Steps to an Ecology of Mind Ballantine New York
J. BeeverM. Tønnessen 2015 Justifying Moral Standing by Biosemiotic Particularism Zeitschrift für Semiotik 37 3-4 31 53
R. Carson 1962 Silent Spring Houghton Mifflin Boston
M. Carvalhais 2010 Towards a Model for Artificial Aesthetics. Contributions to the Study of Creative Practices in Procedural and Computational Systems Doctoral thesis Universidade do Porto
B. Chattopadhyay 2017 Beyond Matter: Object-disoriented Sound Art Seismograph https://seismograf.org/fokus/sound-art-matters/beyond-matter-object-disoriented-sound-art 09 November 2019
C. Cox 2009 Sound Art and the Sonic Unconscious Organised Sound 14 1 19 26
C. Cox 2013 Sonic Philosophy ARTPULSE Magazine http://artpulsemagazine.com/sonic-philosophy 09 November 2019
D. Dunn 2013 Nature, Sound Art, and the Sacred David Rothenberg The Book of Music and Nature: An Anthology of Sounds, Words, Thoughts Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan
C. Emmeche 2001 Does a robot have an Umwelt?’, Semiotica 134 1/4 653 693
P. Harries-Jones 2008 Gregory Bateson’s ‘Uncovery’ of Ecological Aesthetics J. Hoffmeyer A Legacy for Living Systems: Gregory Bateson as Precursor to Biosemiotics Springer Dordrecht
N. K. Hayles 2012 How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis University of Chicago Press Chicago
J. Hoffmeyer 1993 Biosemiotics and ethics N. WitoszekE. Gulbrandsen Culture and Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches Centre for Development and the Environment Oslo
J. Klett 2014 Sound on Sound: Situating Interaction in Sonic Object Settings Sociological Theory 32 2 147 161
B. L. Krause 1987 Bioacoustics, Habitat Ambience in Ecological Balance Whole Earth Review 57 14 18
B. L. Krause 1993 The Niche Hypothesis: A hidden symphony of animal sounds, the origins of musical expression and the health of habitats The Explorers Journal Winter 156 160
K. Kull 2001 Biosemiotics and the problem of intrinsic value of nature Sign Systems Studies 29 1 353 365
B. Labelle 2006 Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art Continuum London
L. Manovich 2001 The Language of New Media MIT Press London
L. Margulis 1970 Origin of eukaryotic cells; evidence and research implications for a theory of the origin and evolution of microbial, plant, and animal cells on the Precambrian earth New Haven Yale University Press
M. MazoyerL. Roudart 2006 A History of World Agriculture: From the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis Earthscan London
E. S. Morton 1975 Ecological Sources of Selection on Avian Sounds The American Naturalist 109 965 17 34
W. Nöth 2001 Semiosis and the Umwelt of a robot Semiotica 134 1/4 695 699
N. Rybczynski 2007 Castorid Phylogenetics: Implications for the Evolution of Swimming and Tree-Exploitation in Beavers Journal of Mammalian Evolution 14 1 1 35
P. Schaeffer 1966 Traité des objets musicaux Éditions du Seuil Paris
R. M. Schaffer 1969 The New Soundscape Berandol Music Limited Ontario
M. Søndergaard 2019 Exscribing the Archive: Curating the Unheard (in Scandinavia) P. Weibel Sound Art MIT Press Cambridge
K. O. StanleyR. Miikkulainen 2002 Evolving Neural Networks through Augmenting Topologies Evolutionary Computation 10 2 99 127
B. Stiegler 1998 Technics and Time 1 Stanford University Press Stanford
J. SueurA. Farina 2015 Ecoacoustics: the Ecological Investigation and Interpretation of Environmental Sound Biosemiotics 8 493 502
M. TønnessenJ. BeeverY. Hendlin 2015 Introducing Biosemiotic Ethics Zeitschrift für Semiotik 37 3-4 3 12
J. Uexküll 1909 Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere Julius Springer Berlin
J. Uexküll 1992 A Stroll Through the Worlds of Animal and Men T. Uexküll Semiotica 89 4 273 391

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] G. Bateson 1972 Steps to an Ecology of Mind Ballantine New York

[2] J. BeeverM. Tønnessen 2015 Justifying Moral Standing by Biosemiotic Particularism Zeitschrift für Semiotik 37 3-4 31 53

[3] R. Carson 1962 Silent Spring Houghton Mifflin Boston

[4] M. Carvalhais 2010 Towards a Model for Artificial Aesthetics. Contributions to the Study of Creative Practices in Procedural and Computational Systems Doctoral thesis Universidade do Porto

[5] B. Chattopadhyay 2017 Beyond Matter: Object-disoriented Sound Art Seismograph https://seismograf.org/fokus/sound-art-matters/beyond-matter-object-disoriented-sound-art 09 November 2019

[6] C. Cox 2009 Sound Art and the Sonic Unconscious Organised Sound 14 1 19 26

[7] C. Cox 2013 Sonic Philosophy ARTPULSE Magazine http://artpulsemagazine.com/sonic-philosophy 09 November 2019

[8] D. Dunn 2013 Nature, Sound Art, and the Sacred David Rothenberg The Book of Music and Nature: An Anthology of Sounds, Words, Thoughts Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan

[9] C. Emmeche 2001 Does a robot have an Umwelt?’, Semiotica 134 1/4 653 693

[10] P. Harries-Jones 2008 Gregory Bateson’s ‘Uncovery’ of Ecological Aesthetics J. Hoffmeyer A Legacy for Living Systems: Gregory Bateson as Precursor to Biosemiotics Springer Dordrecht

[11] N. K. Hayles 2012 How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis University of Chicago Press Chicago

[12] J. Hoffmeyer 1993 Biosemiotics and ethics N. WitoszekE. Gulbrandsen Culture and Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches Centre for Development and the Environment Oslo

[13] J. Klett 2014 Sound on Sound: Situating Interaction in Sonic Object Settings Sociological Theory 32 2 147 161

[14] B. L. Krause 1987 Bioacoustics, Habitat Ambience in Ecological Balance Whole Earth Review 57 14 18

[15] B. L. Krause 1993 The Niche Hypothesis: A hidden symphony of animal sounds, the origins of musical expression and the health of habitats The Explorers Journal Winter 156 160

[16] K. Kull 2001 Biosemiotics and the problem of intrinsic value of nature Sign Systems Studies 29 1 353 365

[17] B. Labelle 2006 Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art Continuum London

[18] L. Manovich 2001 The Language of New Media MIT Press London

[19] L. Margulis 1970 Origin of eukaryotic cells; evidence and research implications for a theory of the origin and evolution of microbial, plant, and animal cells on the Precambrian earth New Haven Yale University Press

[20] M. MazoyerL. Roudart 2006 A History of World Agriculture: From the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis Earthscan London

[21] E. S. Morton 1975 Ecological Sources of Selection on Avian Sounds The American Naturalist 109 965 17 34

[22] W. Nöth 2001 Semiosis and the Umwelt of a robot Semiotica 134 1/4 695 699

[23] N. Rybczynski 2007 Castorid Phylogenetics: Implications for the Evolution of Swimming and Tree-Exploitation in Beavers Journal of Mammalian Evolution 14 1 1 35

[24] P. Schaeffer 1966 Traité des objets musicaux Éditions du Seuil Paris

[25] R. M. Schaffer 1969 The New Soundscape Berandol Music Limited Ontario

[26] M. Søndergaard 2019 Exscribing the Archive: Curating the Unheard (in Scandinavia) P. Weibel Sound Art MIT Press Cambridge

[27] K. O. StanleyR. Miikkulainen 2002 Evolving Neural Networks through Augmenting Topologies Evolutionary Computation 10 2 99 127

[28] B. Stiegler 1998 Technics and Time 1 Stanford University Press Stanford

[29] J. SueurA. Farina 2015 Ecoacoustics: the Ecological Investigation and Interpretation of Environmental Sound Biosemiotics 8 493 502

[30] M. TønnessenJ. BeeverY. Hendlin 2015 Introducing Biosemiotic Ethics Zeitschrift für Semiotik 37 3-4 3 12

[31] J. Uexküll 1909 Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere Julius Springer Berlin

[32] J. Uexküll 1992 A Stroll Through the Worlds of Animal and Men T. Uexküll Semiotica 89 4 273 391

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