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greenmuseum.org the online museum of environmental art
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admin Site Admin
Joined: 21 Nov 2002 Posts: 43
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 8:29 am Post subject: Voice of the Planet is the Muse |
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Share your thoughts on greenmuseum.org's new online exhibition of soundscape art.
http://greenmuseum.org/c/vop
Last edited by admin on Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:25 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Guest
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 5:45 am Post subject: To do or much ado |
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According to soundscape artist DAVID DUNN:
"My take on all this is trying to elevate soundscape recording as an art genre, in the same way that photography did that in the 1920's."
Ansel Adams did a lot to call attention to beautiful places (and help protect them) through his work but many (most?) landscape photos take a pretty neutral stance from an environmentalist perspective. Their concern is often purely aesthetic rather than activist. Some current "environmental" photography does look directly at negative human impact, like the work of Edward Burtynsky: http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/index.html I think a variety of approaches is probably most effective.
To what extent, though, is environmental effectiveness and advocacy being debated within the soundscape community? Would it mostly depend on installations and how the work is presented? |
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jimcummings
Joined: 16 Sep 2003 Posts: 1 Location: foothills of the Sangre de Cristos, NM
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:56 pm Post subject: environmental advocaty |
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There is a fairly significant split in the soundscape community on the question of environmental advocacy, and this debate is quite prominent in the writings of various soundscape artists.
Some artists are explicit in stating that their work is about direct experience of sound, without reference to the source location and/or its "health". They often question the validity of the distinction between "natural" and "human" soundscapes, and tend to be more interested in the sonic textures and possibilities for manipulating source recordings, than in presenting an objective (or even subjective) aural portrait of a place.
On the other extreme, many recordists consider their main purpose to be documenting soundscapes that are disappearing. These folks share a passion for clear expressions of the sounds and voices of locations where habitat fragmentation or intrusion of human sounds/presence is diminishing the biotic and aural diversity. Many of them hope that their work can inspire some tendency toward preservation of habitat, though few harbor any illusions that their audience is large enough to make a huge difference. It is very common for these artists to be active in local or national environmental preservation efforts.
Recordists on all sides question the romantic element present in "traditional" nature sound recordings, wherein the illusion of primordial wilderness is fostered. This tendency, by which CDs edit out noise and perhaps offer the false impression that the location featured is free of human sound intrusions, can lull listeners into a false sense of security/complacency. Of course, the same could be said of glorious wilderness photography that omits the cow pies, clear cuts, or deeply incised trails.
Very few sound artists present harsh contrasts between "beautiful" nature and "ugly" human sounds. Most urban or human-oriented soundscape artists focus on sounds with cultural resonance or simply interesting moments, and most nature-oriented artists tend to leave out the human element. A few bridge this, most notably the Canadian contingent, with Hildegard Westerkamp the most prominent (some of her pieces include narration exploring the ways that you must listen more closely to hear the subtleties of nature's voice in proximity to human noise). Though it should also be noted that this stark contrast between "hi-fi" nature and "lo-fi" human sounds was a key element in early acoustic ecology writing of Murray Shaefer, and remains a controversial philosophical debate in the field to this day.
I think that by and large, most of the artists take a relatively neutral stance in the actual production of their audio pieces, and leave it to the listener to decide whether to be fascinated by the sounds themselves, entranced by the beauty of the sonic community, or inspired to take action. As with most environmental art, I think that the artists' hope is that the effects will be subtle and cumulative: by sharing their own relationship to place and sound, perhaps their listeners' relationships to their landscapes will be enhanced or enlivened.
Jim |
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