Acoustic Spatiality

Abstract

Ex periences of listening can be appreciated as intensely relational, bringing us into contact with surrounding ev ents, bodies and things. Giv en that sound propagates and ex pands outwardly , as a set of oscillations from a particular source, listening carries with it a sensual intensity , whereby auditory phenomena deliv er intrusiv e and disruptiv e as well as soothing and assuring ex periences. The phy sicality characteristic of sound suggests a deeply impressionistic, locational "knowledge structure" -that is, the way s in which listening affords processes of ex change, of being in the world, and from which we ex tend ourselv es. Sound, as phy sical energy reflecting and absorbing into the materiality around us, and ev en one's self, prov ides a rich platform for understanding place and emplacement. Sound is alway s already a trace of location. Such features of auditory ex perience giv e suggestion for what I may call an acoustical paradigm -how sound sets in motion not only the material world but also the flows of the imagination, lending to forces of signification and social structure, and figuring us in relation to each other. The relationality of sound brings us into a steady web of interferences, each of which announces the promise or problematic of being somewhere. I'm interested in ex ploring the particulars of this acoustical paradigm and specifically how it articulates temporal and spatial geographies -to follow sound as it imparts meaningful ex changes for and against the singular body , and further, to ex plore how it locates such a body within a greater weav e. From my perspectiv e, sound operates as an emergent community, stitching together bodies that do not necessarily search for each other, and forcing them into prox imity , for a moment, or longer. Such mov ements bring forward a spatiality that is coherent and inhabitable, that opens up spaces for sharing, as well as being immediately div ergent and diffuse, that is, temporal and multiple, noisy . Acoustic spatiality in other words forces negotiation by being constituted with the fev erish energies of so many interruptions.