Skip to content
1981
Immersive Horizons: Blurring the Creative Frontiers Between Virtual and Material Worlds
  • ISSN: 2397-9704
  • E-ISSN: 2397-9712

Abstract

This article introduces a curated selection of artistic instrument-based practices centred around listening to geophonic and biophonic aspects of the natural soundscape. Featured artists, including Ariel Guzik (), Joyce Hinterding and David Haines (), Pauline Oliveros (), Nicolas Montgermont () and Juan Duarte (), employ instrumental approaches to engage with natural environments. The article delves into the role of technology in mediating environmental awareness, establishing connections with key concepts such as and . The exploration unfolds as a genealogy of art and science instrument-based practices unified by the overarching idea of utilizing technologies to expand human sensorium, primarily through sound. The practices examined advocate for , presenting it as a strategic approach to cultivating empathy towards natural environments by acknowledging nature as an independent entity. Through instrumental relations, these practices enable humans to attune to the profound, otherwise imperceptible voice of nature, resonating beyond the confines of human language.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Department of Art and Media of Aalto University
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/vcr_00081_1
2024-07-18
2024-10-09
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ackermann, Silke and Devoy, Louise (2012), ‘“The lord of the smoking mirror”: Objects associated with John Dee in the British museum’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 43:3, pp. 53949, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.11.007.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Aeronoise (2020), ‘Aeronoise 005: Aether Milieu III: Nicolas Montgermont’, Radio Ensayo, https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioEnsayo/aeronoise-005-aether-milieu-iii-nicolas-montgermont/. Accessed 31 January 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bakker, Karen J. (2022), The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Barrett, G. Douglas (2023), Experimenting the Human: Art, Music, and the Contemporary Posthuman, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226823393.001.0001.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Berenguer, Jaime (2010), ‘The effect of empathy in environmental moral reasoning’, Environment and Behavior, 42:1, pp. 11034, https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916508325892.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Campbell, James and Wynne, Randolph (2011), Introduction to Remote Sensing, New York: Guilford Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Cavarero, Adriana (2012), ‘Multiple voices’, in J. Sterne (ed.), The Sound Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, pp. 52032.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Chattopadhyay, Budhaditya (2022), Sound Practices in the Global South: Co-Listening to Resounding Plurilogues, Cham: Springer Nature.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle (2019), Roman Republican Augury: Freedom and Control, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Duarte Regino, Juan Carlos (2018), ‘Aeolian artefacts’, Proceedings of Politics of the Machines: Art and After (EVA Copenhagen), Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15–17 May, Swindon: British Computer Society, http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.50.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Duarte Regino, Juan Carlos (2023a), ‘A hybrid listening to atmospheric processes’, ISEA 2023, Forum des images, Paris, 16–21 May.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Duarte Regino, Juan Carlos (2023b), ‘Atmospheric attunement weather data sonification with ubiquitous sensor nodes’, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ubiquitous Music, 2023: 13th International Symposium on Ubiquitous Music 2023 (Ubimus23), Ulster University, 2–4 November, Geneva: Zenodo, pp. 8794, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10670220.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Duarte Regino, Juan Carlos (2023c), ‘Computing atmospheric attunement and hybrid listening through augury and scrying’, School of X, https://classof23.xcoax.org/paper09.html.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Finley, Sarah (2019), Hearing Voices: Aurality and New Spanish Sound Culture in Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Hankins, Thomas L. and Silverman, Robert J. (1999), Instruments and the Imagination, 2nd ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Hayles, N. Katherine (2017), Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226447919.001.0001.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Hepach, Maximilian Gregor (2022), ‘Ephemeral climates: Plato’s geographic myths and the phenomenological nature of climate and its changes’, Journal of Historical Geography, 78, pp. 13948, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2022.04.003.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Hopkin, Bart (1996), Musical Instrument Design: Practical Information for Instrument Making, Tucson, AZ: See Sharp Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Ihde, Don (2015), Acoustic Technics, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Ingold, Tim (2015), The Life of Lines, New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Jin Hyun, Kim and Seifert, Uwe (2017), ‘Interactivity of digital musical instruments: Implications of classifying musical instruments on basic music research’, in T. Bovermann, A. de Campo, H. Egermann, S.-I. Hardjowirogo and S. Weinzierl (eds), Musical Instruments in the 21st Century: Identities, Configurations, Practices, New York: Springer, pp. 7994.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Kahn, Douglas (2013), Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in the Arts, Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Kahn, Douglas (2014), ‘On the aelectrosonic and transperception’, Journal of Sonic Studies, 8, https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/108900/108901. Accessed 24 April 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Magnusson, Thor (2019), Sonic Writing: Technologies of Material, Symbolic, and Signal Inscriptions, New York: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. McWilliams, James C. (2019), ‘A perspective on the legacy of Edward Lorenz’, Earth and Space Science, 6:3, pp. 33650, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EA000434.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Montgermont, Nicolas (2017), Axis Mvndi, Cosmic Radio Sculptures, https://nimon.org/en/axismvndi. Accessed 19 April 2024.
  27. Morton, Timothy (2007), Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Oliveros, Pauline (1999), ‘Quantum Improvisation: The Cybernetic Presence’, Hz Journal, https://www.hz-journal.org/n16/oliveros.html. Accessed 4 July 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Oliveros, Pauline (2005), Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice, New York: IUniverse.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Oliveros, Pauline (2022), Quantum Listening, London: Ignota.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Pederson, Claudia (2020), ‘Sensing contemporary Mexican art: Ariel Guzik’s sonic machines’, 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art 2020, Montreal, 19–24 May.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Pijanowski, Bryan C., Farina, Almo, Gage, Stuart H., Dumyahn, Sarah L. and Krause, Bernie L. (2011), ‘What is soundscape ecology? An introduction and overview of an emerging new science’, Landscape Ecology, 26:9, pp. 121332, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-011-9600-8.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Radigue, Eliane, Anne, Fernandez and Jacqueline, Rose (2009), ‘The mysterious power of the infinitesimal’, Leonardo Music Journal, 19:1, pp. 4749.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Randerson, Janine (2018), Weather As Medium: Toward a Meteorological Art, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Riedel, Friedlind and Torvinen, Juha (eds) (2019), Music as Atmosphere: Collective Feelings and Affective Sounds, New York: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780815358718.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Robinson, Dylan (2020), Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Schafer, R. Murray (1994), The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Taub, Liba (2003), Ancient Meteorology: Sciences of Antiquity, New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Westerkamp, Hildegard (2002), ‘Linking soundscape composition and acoustic ecology’, Organised Sound, 7:1, pp. 5156, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355771802001085.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Wright, Mark Peter (2022), Listening after Nature: Field Recording, Ecology, Critical Practice, New York: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Zielinski, Siegfried (2006), Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/vcr_00081_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/vcr_00081_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error