The Now of History: Tomographic and Ficto-Critical Approaches to Writing About Sonic Art

Sonic art concerns itself with the experience of listening, a sense perception markedly different to the visual. However the majority of commentary on sonic art utilises historical and taxonomical approaches dependent on theoretical structures that are inherently retinal. Expanding on Salomé Voegelin’s proposal for a writing that stems from a ‘sonic sensibility’ (2010, 2014) this paper proposes a tomographic (as opposed to a topographic) approach, one that is generated from the embedded and embodied nature of the sonic experience. It is proposed that this tomographic subjectivity forms part of a ficto-critical writing methodology, in which creative and critical modes are intermingled. Ficto-criticism allows for an interplay of percept and concept that is proposed as a suitable match for sonic art in which these similar tensions play out. A number of texts by writers identified as using tomographic and ficto-critical strategies will be used to illustrate this approach including Daniela Cascella, Kodwo Eshun and Joanna Demers. This paper reflects the first stage of doctoral research that will continue, by analysis and enaction, to develop a legitimate place for fictocritical writing as a rigorous contribution to cultural commentary about sonic art.

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Gail Priest

Conference

Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 57-62

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[0001]University of Technology Sydney (PhD Candidate)

38 Cascade St, Katoomba, NSW Australia 2780

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.9

SO-VID: 08ed739c-24b1-428b-83e5-1faa36b47c49

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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

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.9

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

REFERENCES

L.W. Barsalou 1999 Perceptual symbol systems Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22 04 http://www.joumals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0140525X99002149 11 August 2019
A. Brewster 1995 Fictocriticism: Pedagogy and Practice C. GuerinP. ButressA. Nettelbeck Crossing Lines: Formations of Australian Culture Proceedings, Adelaide 1995, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/article/view/9958 9 September 2019 89 92
D. Cascella 2015 F.M.R.L.: Footnotes, Mirages, Refrains and Leftovers of Writing Sound (Ebook) Alresford Hants Zero Books/John Hunt Publishing
M. de Certeau 1984 The Practice of Everyday Life Berkeley University of California Press
M. Chion 1983 Guide to Sound Objects. Pierre Schaeffer and Musical Research J. DackC. North Paris Éditions Buchet/Chastel http://ears.pierrecouprie.fr/spip.php7article3597 10 July 2018
S. Connor 2015 Acousmania Sound Studies: Art, Experience, Politics Conference, The University of Cambridge, 10th July 2015 http://stevenconnor.com/acousmania.html 12 November 2018
C. Cox 2018 Sonic Flux: Sound, Art and Metaphysics (E-book) Chicago University of Chicago Press
C. CoxD. Warner 2006 Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music New York, London Continuum
J. Demers 2015 Drone and Apocalypse: An Exhibit Catalog for the End of the World (Ebook) Winchester/Washington Zero Books
K. Eshun 1999 More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction London Quartet Books
A. Gibbs 2003 Writing and the flesh of others Australian Feminist Studies 18 42 309 319
J.J. Gibson 1986 The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception New York/Hove Psychology Press
G. Haas 2017 Ficto/critical Strategies, Subverting Textual Practices of Meaning, Other, and SelfFormation Bielefeld transcript Verlag
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D. Kahn 2001 Noise, Water, Meat Cambridge Mass The MIT Press
D. Kapchan 2017 Theorizing Sound Writing (Ebook) Middleton CT Wesleyan University Press
H. Kerr 1995 Fictocriticism, the ‘Doubtful Category’ and the ‘Space Between’ C. GuerinP. ButressA. Nettelbeck Crossing Lines: Formations of Australian Culture Proceedings, Adelaide 1995. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/article/view/9958 9 September 2019 93 96
H. KerrA. Nettelbeck 1998 the space between Nedlands University of Western Australia Press
S. Kim-Cohen 2009 In the Blink of An Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art (E-book) New York Continuum
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J. Lavender 2017 Introduction: Sounding / Thinking Parallax 23 3 245 251
A. Licht 2007 Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories New York Rizzoli
S. MueckeN. King 1991 On Ficto-criticism Australian Book Review 134 13 14
S. Muecke 2002 The Fall: Fictocritical Writing Parallax 8 4 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1353464022000028000 16 December 2018 108 112
A. Nettelbeck 1998 Notes Towards an Introduction H. KerrA. Nettelbeck the space between Nedlands University of Western Australia Press 1 17
A. Noë 2009 Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness New York Hill and Wang
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F.J. VarelaE. ThompsonE. Rosch 1991 The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience Cambridge, Mass MIT Press
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S. Voegelin 2019 The Political Possibility of Sound: Fragments of Listening (E-book) London/New York Bloomsbury

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] L.W. Barsalou 1999 Perceptual symbol systems Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22 04 http://www.joumals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0140525X99002149 11 August 2019

[2] A. Brewster 1995 Fictocriticism: Pedagogy and Practice C. GuerinP. ButressA. Nettelbeck Crossing Lines: Formations of Australian Culture Proceedings, Adelaide 1995, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/article/view/9958 9 September 2019 89 92

[3] D. Cascella 2015 F.M.R.L.: Footnotes, Mirages, Refrains and Leftovers of Writing Sound (Ebook) Alresford Hants Zero Books/John Hunt Publishing

[4] M. de Certeau 1984 The Practice of Everyday Life Berkeley University of California Press

[5] M. Chion 1983 Guide to Sound Objects. Pierre Schaeffer and Musical Research J. DackC. North Paris Éditions Buchet/Chastel http://ears.pierrecouprie.fr/spip.php7article3597 10 July 2018

[6] S. Connor 2015 Acousmania Sound Studies: Art, Experience, Politics Conference, The University of Cambridge, 10th July 2015 http://stevenconnor.com/acousmania.html 12 November 2018

[7] C. Cox 2018 Sonic Flux: Sound, Art and Metaphysics (E-book) Chicago University of Chicago Press

[8] C. CoxD. Warner 2006 Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music New York, London Continuum

[9] J. Demers 2015 Drone and Apocalypse: An Exhibit Catalog for the End of the World (Ebook) Winchester/Washington Zero Books

[10] K. Eshun 1999 More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction London Quartet Books

[11] A. Gibbs 2003 Writing and the flesh of others Australian Feminist Studies 18 42 309 319

[12] J.J. Gibson 1986 The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception New York/Hove Psychology Press

[13] G. Haas 2017 Ficto/critical Strategies, Subverting Textual Practices of Meaning, Other, and SelfFormation Bielefeld transcript Verlag

[14] E. Ikoniadou 2017 A Sonic Theory Unsuitable for Human Consumption Parallax 23 3 252 265

[15] D. Kahn 2001 Noise, Water, Meat Cambridge Mass The MIT Press

[16] D. Kapchan 2017 Theorizing Sound Writing (Ebook) Middleton CT Wesleyan University Press

[17] H. Kerr 1995 Fictocriticism, the ‘Doubtful Category’ and the ‘Space Between’ C. GuerinP. ButressA. Nettelbeck Crossing Lines: Formations of Australian Culture Proceedings, Adelaide 1995. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/article/view/9958 9 September 2019 93 96

[18] H. KerrA. Nettelbeck 1998 the space between Nedlands University of Western Australia Press

[19] S. Kim-Cohen 2009 In the Blink of An Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art (E-book) New York Continuum

[20] B. LaBelle 2010 Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art New York, London Continuum

[21] J. Lavender 2017 Introduction: Sounding / Thinking Parallax 23 3 245 251

[22] A. Licht 2007 Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories New York Rizzoli

[23] S. MueckeN. King 1991 On Ficto-criticism Australian Book Review 134 13 14

[24] S. Muecke 2002 The Fall: Fictocritical Writing Parallax 8 4 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1353464022000028000 16 December 2018 108 112

[25] A. Nettelbeck 1998 Notes Towards an Introduction H. KerrA. Nettelbeck the space between Nedlands University of Western Australia Press 1 17

[26] A. Noë 2009 Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness New York Hill and Wang

[27] C. O’Callaghan 2009 Sounds and events M. NuddsC. O’Callaghan Sounds and Perception: New Philosophical Essays (E-book) Oxford OUP Oxford

[28] P. Schaeffer 2012 In Search of a Concrete Music C. NorthJ. Dack Berkeley University of California Press

[29] P. Schaeffer 2017 Treatise on Musical Objects: An Essay Across Disciplines C. NorthJ. Dack Berkeley University of California Press

[30] S. Sontag 2009 Against Interpretation and Other Essays (E-book) London Penguin Modern Classics

[31] J.A. SteintragerR. Chow 2019 Sound Objects (E-book) Durham/London Duke University Press

[32] J. Sterne 2012 The Sound Studies Reader London, New York Routledge

[33] Tomography Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomography 17 June 2018

[34] F.J. VarelaE. ThompsonE. Rosch 1991 The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience Cambridge, Mass MIT Press

[35] S. Voegelin 2010 Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art New York Continuum

[36] S. Voegelin 2014 Sonic Possible Worlds: Hearing the Continuum of Sound (E-book) New York/ London Bloomsbury

[37] S. Voegelin 2016 Sound Words and Sonic Fictions: Writing the Ephemeral The Routledge Companion to Sounding Art New York Routledge https://www-taylorfrancis-com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/books/e/9781317672777 24 April 2018 10

[38] S. Voegelin 2019 The Political Possibility of Sound: Fragments of Listening (E-book) London/New York Bloomsbury

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