Listening to Noise and Silence Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art [Paperback]

Listening to Noise and Silenceengages with the emerging practice of sound art and the concurrent development of a discourse and theory of sound. In this original and challenging work, Salom? Voegelin immerses the reader in concepts of listening to sound artwork and the everyday acoustic environment, establishing an aesthetics and philosophy of sound and promoting the notion of a sonic sensibility.

A multitude of sound works are discussed, by lesser known contemporary artists and composers (for example Curgenven, Gasson and Federer), historical figures in the field (Artaud, Feldman and Cage), and that of contemporary canonic artists such as Janet Cardiff, Bill Fontana, Bernard Parmegiani, and Merzbow.

Informed by the ideas of Adorno, Merleau-Ponty and others, the book aims to come to a critique of sound art from its soundings rather than in relation to abstracted themes and pre-existing categories.Listening to Noise and Silencebroadens the discussion surrounding sound art and opens up the field for others to follow.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part one Listening

Being Honeyed

To Listen

Dynamic Things and Places

Critique of a Remote Critic

Listening to the Soundscape Recorded

Listening to the Radio

Conclusion: Sonic Solitude

Part two Noise

Bad Taste

Noisy Non-Sense

How can you hear it when you do not know what you are listening for? - Noise and Modernism

Noise and Postmodernism

Sonic Noise

Conclusion: Noisy Voices

Part three Silence

Conceptual Silence

When there is nothing to hear you start hearing things

The silelÃ