Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:31:27.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ecological Sound Art: Steps towards a new field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2017

Jonathan Gilmurray
Jonathan Gilmurray*
Affiliation:
CRiSAP, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6SB
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The years since the turn of the millennium have seen an increasing number of sound artists engaging with contemporary environmental issues such as biodiversity loss, sustainability and climate change through their work, forming a growing movement of environmentally concerned sound art; however, their work has yet to achieve the recognition enjoyed by comparable environmentalist practices in almost every other art form. This article argues that this increasingly significant area of sound arts practice should be recognised as a distinct field in its own right, and proposes that it be termed ‘ecological sound art’, reflecting its equivalent in the visual arts. After establishing its current absence from both ecocritical and sound arts scholarship, it proceeds to outline some of the core approaches which characterise works of ecological sound art, as the first step towards its establishment as a coherent field of practice. The final section draws from key works of contemporary ecological theory, examining the fundamental accord that exists between the new modes of thought they propose and the ways in which we experience and relate to sound art, demonstrating that ecological sound art represents not only a significant new field of sound arts practice, but also a powerful ecological art form.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 22 , Special Issue 1: Context-based Composition , April 2017 , pp. 32 - 41
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abram, D. 1996. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Adams, J. L. 2009. The Place Where You Go to Listen: In Search of an Ecology of Music. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, A. S. 2013. Ecomusicology. In C. H. Garrett (ed.) The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edn. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, A. S. and Dawe, K. (eds.) 2016. Current Directions in Ecomusicology: Music, Culture, Nature. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Anker, P. 2010. From Bauhaus to Eco-Haus: A History of Ecological Design. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Armbruster, K. M. and Wallace, K. R. (eds.) 2001. Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Arons, W. and May, T. J. (eds.) 2012. Readings in Performance and Ecology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakht, S. 2009. Noise, Nonsense, and the New Media Soundscape. eContact! 11(4). http://econtact.ca/11_4/bakht_newmedia.html (accessed 3 February 2016).Google Scholar
Bandt, R., Duffy, M. and MacKinnon, D. (eds.) 2007. Hearing Places: Sound, Place, Time and Culture. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Barclay, L. 2012. Shifting Paradigms: Towards an Auditory Culture. Proceedings of ISEA 2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness. Albuquerque, NM: ISEA. http://socialmedia.hpc.unm.edu/isea2012/sites/default/files/ISEA2012_confproceedings_WEB.pdf (accessed 3 October 2014).Google Scholar
Belgiojoso, R. 2014. Constructing Urban Space with Sounds and Music. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bennett, J. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Bergman, D. 2012. Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.Google Scholar
Besel, R. D. and Blau, J. A. (eds.) 2014. Performance on Behalf of the Environment. Plymouth: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Bianchi, F. and Manzo, V. J. (eds.) 2016. Environmental Sound Artists: In Their Own Words. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bijsterveld, K. (ed.) 2013. Soundscapes of the Urban Past: Staged Sound as Mediated Cultural Heritage. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.Google Scholar
Black, S. 2013. The Sustainable Fashion Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Blackburn, P. 2016. Bio. http://philipblackburn.com/bio/ (accessed 3 February 2016).Google Scholar
Branchi, W. 2012. Canto Infinito: Thinking Music Environmentally. New York: Open Space.Google Scholar
Brown, A. 2014. Art and Ecology Now. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Brown, S. 2010. Eco Fashion. London: Laurence King.Google Scholar
Buell, L. 2005. The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Burt, W. 2007. Liner notes. In David Dunn. Autonomous and Dynamical Systems. New York: New World Records.Google Scholar
Burtner, M. 2005. Ecoacoustic and Shamanic Technologies for Multimedia Composition and Performance. Organised Sound 10(1): 3–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burtner, M. 2011. EcoSono: Adventures in Interactive Ecoacoustics in the World. Organised Sound 16(3): 234–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlyle, A. (ed.) 2007. Autumn Leaves: Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice. Paris: Double Entendre.Google Scholar
Cless, D. 2010. Ecology and Environment in European Drama. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J. 2010. About Environmental Soundscape Art. http://earthear.com/aboutesa.html (accessed 3 February 2016).Google Scholar
Dunn, D. 1988. Environment, Consciousness, and Magic. http://davidddunn.com/~david/writings/interv1.pdf (accessed 6 June 2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, D. 2009. Nature, Sound Art, and the Sacred. In D. Rothenberg and M. Ulvaeus (eds.) The Book of Music and Nature, 2nd edn. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Dyson, F. 2014. The Tone of Our Times: Sound, Sense, Economy, and Ecology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ear to the Earth. 2011. Ear to the Earth is a global community of environmental sound artists responding to climate change. http://twitter.com/ear2earth (accessed 14 December 2015).Google Scholar
Ear to the Earth. 2015. Suspended Sounds. http://eartotheearth.org/2015/01/suspended-sounds/ (accessed 21 February 2016).Google Scholar
Gandy, M. and Nilsen, B. (eds.) 2014. The Acoustic City. Berlin: JOVIS Verlag.Google Scholar
Garrard, G. 2012. Ecocriticism, 2nd edn. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Glotfelty, C. and Fromm, H. (eds.) 1996. The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, J. F. and Hill, C. 2015. Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Gustafsson, T. and Kääpä, P. (eds.) 2013. Transnational Ecocinema: Film Culture in an Era of Ecological Transformation. Bristol: Intellect.Google Scholar
Guy, S. and Moore, S. A. (eds.) 2005. Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America. New York: Spon Press.Google Scholar
Heinlein, K. G. 2007. Green Theatre: Promoting Ecological Preservation and Advancing the Sustainability of Humanity and Nature. Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller e.K.Google Scholar
Hermann, T., Hunt, A. and Neuhoff, J. G. (eds.) 2011. The Sonification Handbook. Berlin: Logos Verlag.Google Scholar
Hethorn, J. and Ulasewicz, C. (eds.) 2008. Sustainable Fashion: Why Now?. London: Fairchild Books.Google Scholar
Ingram, D. 2000. Green Screen: Environmentalism and Hollywood Cinema. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.Google Scholar
Ingram, D. 2010. The Jukebox in the Garden: Ecocriticism and Popular Music Since 1960. Amsterdam: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagan, S. 2013. Art and Sustainability: Connecting Patterns for a Culture of Complexity, 2nd edn. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.Google Scholar
Klein, N. 2014. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Koutsomichalis, M. 2013. On Soundscapes, Phonography and Environmental Sound Art. Journal of Sonic Studies 4(1). http://journal.sonicstudies.org/vol04/nr01/a05 (accessed 3 February 2016).Google Scholar
Krause, B. L. 1987. The Niche Hypothesis: How Animals Taught Us to Dance and Sing. http://appohigh.org/ourpages/auto/2010/12/21/52074732/niche.pdf (accessed 28 January 2016).Google Scholar
LaBelle, B. 2006. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Lane, C. and Carlyle, A. 2013. In the Field: The Art of Field Recording. Axminster: Uniformbooks.Google Scholar
Lavery, C. and Finburgh, C. (eds.) 2015. Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd: Ecology, the Environment and the Greening of the Modern Stage. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matilsky, B. C. 1992. Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary Artists’ Interpretations and Solutions. New York: Rizzoli.Google Scholar
McKibben, B. 2005. What the Warming World Needs Now is Art, Sweet Art. http://grist.org/article/mckibben-imagine/ (accessed 14 March 2015).Google Scholar
McKibben, B. 2009. Four Years After My Pleading Essay, Climate Art Is Hot. http://grist.org/article/2009–08–05-essay-climate-art-update-bill-mckibben/ (accessed 14 March 2015).Google Scholar
Mellers, W. 2001. Singing in the Wilderness: Music and Ecology in the Twentieth Century. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Miles, M. 2014. Eco-Aesthetics: Art, Literature and Architecture in a Period of Climate Change. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Minney, S. 2011. Naked Fashion: The New Sustainable Fashion Revolution. Oxford: New Internationalist.Google Scholar
Monacchi, D. 2011. Recording and Representation in Eco-Acoustic Composition. In J. Rudi (ed.) Soundscape in the Arts. Oslo: NOTAM.Google Scholar
Morton, T. 2010. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Natural World Museum 2007. Art in Action: Nature, Creativity and our Collective Future. San Rafael, CA: Earth Aware Editions.Google Scholar
O’Brien, A. 2016. Transactions with the World: Ecocriticism and the Environmental Sensibility of New Hollywood. New York: Berghahn Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otsuka, T. and Sandberg, U. 2009. Environmental Sound Art Technology. Proceedings of the 38th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering: INTER-NOISE 2009. Ashland, OH: Noise Control Foundation.Google Scholar
Pedelty, M. 2012. Ecomusicology: Rock, Folk, and the Environment. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Polli, A. 2005. Heat and the Heartbeat of the City: Central Park Climate Change in Sound. http://landviews.org/articles/heat-ap.html (accessed 28 January 2016).Google Scholar
Rehding, A. 2011. Ecomusicology between Apocalypse and Nostalgia. Journal of the American Musicological Society 64(2): 409–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudi, J. (ed.) 2011. Soundscape in the Arts. Oslo: NOTAM.Google Scholar
Rust, S., Monani, S. and Cubitt, S. (eds.) 2013. Ecocinema Theory and Practice. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shedroff, N. 2009. Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable. Brooklyn, NY: Rosenfeld Media.Google Scholar
Spaid, S. 2002. Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies. Cincinatti, OH: Contemporary Arts Center.Google Scholar
Stang, A. and Hawthorne, C. 2005. The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.Google Scholar
Titon, J. T. 2013. The Nature of Ecomusicology. Música e Cultura 8(1): 8–18.Google Scholar
Truax, B. 2001. Acoustic Communication. New York: Ablex.Google Scholar
Velasco, M., Pohl, N. and Nieto, I. 2005. Water Issues in Chile: How Does a Dry River Sound? http://academia.edu/11685879/Water_issues_in_Chile_how_does_a_dry_river_sound_Submission_Accepted._Network_Ecologies (accessed 12 February 2016).Google Scholar
Voegelin, S. 2014. Sonic Possible Worlds: Hearing the Continuum of Sound. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Von Glahn, D. 2013. Music and the Skillful Listener: American Women Compose the Natural World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Weintraub, L. 2012. To Life! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westling, L. (ed.) 2014. The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Willoquet-Maricondi, P. (ed.) 2010. Framing the World: Explorations in Ecocriticism and Film. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winderen, J. 2013. Silencing of the Reefs, Dardanella, Belize 3–14 December 2012. http://janawinderen.com/fieldtrips/sielncing_of_the_reefs_dardane.html#.V6Sq1FfgVbw (accessed 16 January 2016).Google Scholar
Wright, M. 2015. Contact Zones and Elsewhere Fields: The Poetics and Politics of Environmental Sound Arts. PhD thesis, University of the Arts, London. http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/8662/1/Wright-PhD-thesis-2015.pdf (accessed 3 February 2016).Google Scholar