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Swamp, Sound, Sign: Reflections on interspecies difference in compositional practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2020

William Bertrand
William Bertrand*
Affiliation:
Oberlin Conservatory, Ohio, USA
*
Email: wbertran@oberlin.edu
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Abstract

Soundscape composition and environmental sound art already imply critiques and negotiations of nature/culture divide and human/non-human difference. This article, along with the composition it frames, thinks through a vision of environmental sound art that completes a link between sonic practice and its object. As a project, it navigates human/animal difference through a sonic knowing which is founded on life’s shared constitution in signs. Sounds beyond spoken words, like the signs that dominate non-human life, are foundationally non-symbolic, and the ability of environmental sound art to resemble and evoke networks of icons and indices is in some respects a privileged position of electroacoustic music. The article presents a non-dualistic sonic thinking within the decentred perspective of the environment, which emerges as a plural product of its engagements and participants. A vision for soundscape composition is presented, along with a frame for its interpretation as sonic thought, or phonosophy.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 25 , Issue 3: On Phonosophy , December 2020 , pp. 321 - 326
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Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2020.

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Bertrand Supplementary Materials

Bertrand Supplementary Materials

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