Blog Post #1
Date: 14/11/2024
Title: Invisible Forces
[Excerpt of Thesis 2021]
[Excerpt of Thesis 2021]
At the time of
writing this I am sitting in front of my desk, two speakers angled
towards me and I pay attention to the compositions of music played by Roger and
Brian Eno from their Mixing Colours 2020 album. Shouts from children playing
from a distant kindergarten are quiet but present and the infamous Rose-ringed
Parakeet singing just outside my window along with various other species of bird
vocalising at different points in time and space. The faint rumble of my chair
against the wooden floor, the tapping of the keyboard as I type and finally the
electrical noise hissing from my speakers that ever so slightly but noticeably fills
the acoustic space. All of what is sonically present that I can hear and listen to are
sonically adjustable, I may close the windows to muffle out the sounds from
outside, turning off the speakers or increasing the amplitude to mask out my
immediate soundscape. It is an interesting ability to navigate the sonic space to
hear what I want to hear eliminating any unwanted sounds, also known as noise .
Sounds and noises are symbiotic by nature, one cannot exist without the other.
Where sound is the byproduct of a vibrating object or subject, noise manifests in
the perception of the hearer. A light example is one I provide above of interfering
wires that materialise electrical noise out from the speaker, an annoying low
amplitude and constant high frequency tones. In contrast someone might be
attuned to liking the sounds of this electrical interference or noises.
Before going further it is critical to first get an understanding of what is
meant when mentioning sound. Objectively from a scientific perspective sound is a
longitudinal, mechanical wave formed by a variation in air pressure from vibrating
objects or by air flow around blunt objects resulting in the formation of vortices
that shed with a specific frequency, the process called vortex shedding (Elert 1998).[i]
Whistles and the Aeolian harp produce sound in this way. Having briefly described
the scientific aspects of sound, let us turn to the opposing side where subjectivity is
involved. The physicality of sound is an inherently invisible object of perceive
vibrations, these invisible objects when dispersed in space are infused with
information, interpretations, meaning, value and power. They travel through
bodies in the surrounding space; a navigating energy of modulating air waves that
hit your eardrums and eventually decay into silence. These invisible forces hold the
fundamental basis of complex communication for both human and nonhuman
beings via the act of vocalisations, music making and feeling (Kraus et al 2016)[ii]. In
order for one to engage in sonic communication one must first hear and listen.
Note that I create a distinction between hearing and listening, where both manifest
similarities in the experience of sound they work together in a hierarchy of
understanding and perceiving information. Hearing comes first at an objective
acknowledgement of the existence of sounds which drives consciousness into
responding to them, here I take on board Robert Pasnau’s philosophical angle of
recognising and interpreting sounds. Pasnau (1999)[iii]explains that we perceive
sound like we see colours, as being located at their point of origin describing it as
“locational modality” further explaining that both objects of sight and audition do
not just hold information of its sensory qualities, but the location of those qualities
opening the awareness of oneself in the sonic surroundings. To give an example
one can enact hearing and locate where a sound is emanating from.
Listening then follows in a state of presence and awareness in this space that
forms an attention toward a singular or multiple sonic sources that enables an
understanding of that subject. The knowledge of sounds and its ontology is not an
acquired knowledge in the sense that one must learn through academia but rather
one knows through empirical methods of constant interactive processes of
participation, experience, and reflection with the sounds. This relation may grow
one’s attentiveness and create meaningful understanding of the sound object’s
point of origin, its maker and existence constructing an existential relationality
and a connectedness of being (Novak, 2018)[iv]. The iconic western church bell, with
its amplitude far exceeding the ambient noise of the small city where I reside
making its voice heard in the soundscape, is a prime example of a sound object rich
in cultural epistemology. The church bell acts as a centripetal sound attracting and
unifying religious communities together to celebrate, mourn or pray. It also acted
as a centrifugal sound to ward off evil spirits. The church bell represented its sonic
power for many occasions, it was an acoustic calendar, it announced festivals,
births, deaths, marriages, fires and revolts (Schafer 1993)[v]. As we briefly discussed
with the example of the church bell it is evident that sound can form cultural
epistemologies by way centrifugal attraction toward a specific source of a religious
community.
The sonic environment was once fair and just to the bodies of human and
nonhuman animals that lived away from the detrimental effects of noise pollution
that causes damages to hearing, sexual impotency, memory loss and irritation to
the nervous systems (Pramendra et al 2011)[vi]. Noise was not considered harmful by
many however acoustic ecologist Murray R. Schaefer heightened the awareness of
noise pollution and its effects in urban and rural landscapes in The Soundscape, Our
Sonic Environment and the Tuning of The World (1993). Acoustic ecology became a
movement in the late 1960’s as an environmental sonic research project pioneered
by Schafer at the Simon Fraser University in Canada. The movement grew as the
main part of the World Soundscape Project which aimed to study the acoustic
environment in an effort to maintain a balanced soundscape. To bring together
harmony between human communities and its sonic environment. This paved the
way for noise pollution to be brought to the surface in the larger spectrum of
politics providing noise abatement acts in Western Europe and the United States.
From the research conducted by Schaefer and his team they have found that some
noises have now become what Schaefer refers to as “keynotes” of soundscapes.
Keynotes are sounds that are the most dominant and distinctive ones which give a
community a specific meaning of that particular area, just like in the example of
the church bell, whether it was produced by natural organisms or human made
objects (Schafer 1993). Schafer puts together an encyclopaedic “earwitness”-
of detailed personal experiences of hearing and listening - accounts of acoustic
environments from the natural soundscape to the rural and urban life of pre and
post industrial ages. This provided a clear imagination on the progression of noise
in all aspects of these areas throughout time from the more silent eras of antiquity
to the bustling towns of pre-industrial age, the deafening motions of machinery in
the industrial revolution to the present-day accounts of noise in western
technological societies.
[i] Elert, Glenn
1998 The Nature of Sound. The Physics Hypertextbook.
https://physics.info/sound/resources.shtml accessed on 6 January 2021
[ii] Kraus, Nina and Jessica, Slater
2016 Beyond Words: How Humans Communicate Through Sound. Annual review of Psychology
67: 83-103
[iii] Pasnau, Robert
1999 What is Sound? The Philosophical Quarterly 49(196): 309–324
[iv] Novak, David and Sakakeeny, Matt.
2015 Keywords in Sound. Durham: Duke University Press.
[v] Schafer, R. Murray
1993 The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Vermont:
Destiny Books
[vi] Pramendra, Dev and Singh, Vartika
2011 Environmental Noise Pollution Monitoring and Impacts On Human Health in
Dehradun City, Uttarakhand, India. Civil and Environmental Research 1(1): 32-39
towards me and I pay attention to the compositions of music played by Roger and
Brian Eno from their Mixing Colours 2020 album. Shouts from children playing
from a distant kindergarten are quiet but present and the infamous Rose-ringed
Parakeet singing just outside my window along with various other species of bird
vocalising at different points in time and space. The faint rumble of my chair
against the wooden floor, the tapping of the keyboard as I type and finally the
electrical noise hissing from my speakers that ever so slightly but noticeably fills
the acoustic space. All of what is sonically present that I can hear and listen to are
sonically adjustable, I may close the windows to muffle out the sounds from
outside, turning off the speakers or increasing the amplitude to mask out my
immediate soundscape. It is an interesting ability to navigate the sonic space to
hear what I want to hear eliminating any unwanted sounds, also known as noise .
Sounds and noises are symbiotic by nature, one cannot exist without the other.
Where sound is the byproduct of a vibrating object or subject, noise manifests in
the perception of the hearer. A light example is one I provide above of interfering
wires that materialise electrical noise out from the speaker, an annoying low
amplitude and constant high frequency tones. In contrast someone might be
attuned to liking the sounds of this electrical interference or noises.
Before going further it is critical to first get an understanding of what is
meant when mentioning sound. Objectively from a scientific perspective sound is a
longitudinal, mechanical wave formed by a variation in air pressure from vibrating
objects or by air flow around blunt objects resulting in the formation of vortices
that shed with a specific frequency, the process called vortex shedding (Elert 1998).[i]
Whistles and the Aeolian harp produce sound in this way. Having briefly described
the scientific aspects of sound, let us turn to the opposing side where subjectivity is
involved. The physicality of sound is an inherently invisible object of perceive
vibrations, these invisible objects when dispersed in space are infused with
information, interpretations, meaning, value and power. They travel through
bodies in the surrounding space; a navigating energy of modulating air waves that
hit your eardrums and eventually decay into silence. These invisible forces hold the
fundamental basis of complex communication for both human and nonhuman
beings via the act of vocalisations, music making and feeling (Kraus et al 2016)[ii]. In
order for one to engage in sonic communication one must first hear and listen.
Note that I create a distinction between hearing and listening, where both manifest
similarities in the experience of sound they work together in a hierarchy of
understanding and perceiving information. Hearing comes first at an objective
acknowledgement of the existence of sounds which drives consciousness into
responding to them, here I take on board Robert Pasnau’s philosophical angle of
recognising and interpreting sounds. Pasnau (1999)[iii]explains that we perceive
sound like we see colours, as being located at their point of origin describing it as
“locational modality” further explaining that both objects of sight and audition do
not just hold information of its sensory qualities, but the location of those qualities
opening the awareness of oneself in the sonic surroundings. To give an example
one can enact hearing and locate where a sound is emanating from.
Listening then follows in a state of presence and awareness in this space that
forms an attention toward a singular or multiple sonic sources that enables an
understanding of that subject. The knowledge of sounds and its ontology is not an
acquired knowledge in the sense that one must learn through academia but rather
one knows through empirical methods of constant interactive processes of
participation, experience, and reflection with the sounds. This relation may grow
one’s attentiveness and create meaningful understanding of the sound object’s
point of origin, its maker and existence constructing an existential relationality
and a connectedness of being (Novak, 2018)[iv]. The iconic western church bell, with
its amplitude far exceeding the ambient noise of the small city where I reside
making its voice heard in the soundscape, is a prime example of a sound object rich
in cultural epistemology. The church bell acts as a centripetal sound attracting and
unifying religious communities together to celebrate, mourn or pray. It also acted
as a centrifugal sound to ward off evil spirits. The church bell represented its sonic
power for many occasions, it was an acoustic calendar, it announced festivals,
births, deaths, marriages, fires and revolts (Schafer 1993)[v]. As we briefly discussed
with the example of the church bell it is evident that sound can form cultural
epistemologies by way centrifugal attraction toward a specific source of a religious
community.
The sonic environment was once fair and just to the bodies of human and
nonhuman animals that lived away from the detrimental effects of noise pollution
that causes damages to hearing, sexual impotency, memory loss and irritation to
the nervous systems (Pramendra et al 2011)[vi]. Noise was not considered harmful by
many however acoustic ecologist Murray R. Schaefer heightened the awareness of
noise pollution and its effects in urban and rural landscapes in The Soundscape, Our
Sonic Environment and the Tuning of The World (1993). Acoustic ecology became a
movement in the late 1960’s as an environmental sonic research project pioneered
by Schafer at the Simon Fraser University in Canada. The movement grew as the
main part of the World Soundscape Project which aimed to study the acoustic
environment in an effort to maintain a balanced soundscape. To bring together
harmony between human communities and its sonic environment. This paved the
way for noise pollution to be brought to the surface in the larger spectrum of
politics providing noise abatement acts in Western Europe and the United States.
From the research conducted by Schaefer and his team they have found that some
noises have now become what Schaefer refers to as “keynotes” of soundscapes.
Keynotes are sounds that are the most dominant and distinctive ones which give a
community a specific meaning of that particular area, just like in the example of
the church bell, whether it was produced by natural organisms or human made
objects (Schafer 1993). Schafer puts together an encyclopaedic “earwitness”-
of detailed personal experiences of hearing and listening - accounts of acoustic
environments from the natural soundscape to the rural and urban life of pre and
post industrial ages. This provided a clear imagination on the progression of noise
in all aspects of these areas throughout time from the more silent eras of antiquity
to the bustling towns of pre-industrial age, the deafening motions of machinery in
the industrial revolution to the present-day accounts of noise in western
technological societies.
[i] Elert, Glenn
1998 The Nature of Sound. The Physics Hypertextbook.
https://physics.info/sound/resources.shtml accessed on 6 January 2021
[ii] Kraus, Nina and Jessica, Slater
2016 Beyond Words: How Humans Communicate Through Sound. Annual review of Psychology
67: 83-103
[iii] Pasnau, Robert
1999 What is Sound? The Philosophical Quarterly 49(196): 309–324
[iv] Novak, David and Sakakeeny, Matt.
2015 Keywords in Sound. Durham: Duke University Press.
[v] Schafer, R. Murray
1993 The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Vermont:
Destiny Books
[vi] Pramendra, Dev and Singh, Vartika
2011 Environmental Noise Pollution Monitoring and Impacts On Human Health in
Dehradun City, Uttarakhand, India. Civil and Environmental Research 1(1): 32-39