Embodied sound: Aural architectures and the body

Abstract

This article examines two sound installations distributed on CD: Maryanne Amacher's Sound Characters (Making the Third Ear) (1999) and Bernhard Leitner's KOPFRÄUME (HEADSCAPES) (2003). The author undertakes an embodied reception of these works, experimenting with new models of listening and analysis that take into consideration aspects of the built environment, social spaces and imaginary architectures as these are perceived at the intersection of sound, space and the body. Conceptualizations of space, place and embodiment are engaged; and definitions for sound installation and ‘situated sonic practices’ are offered. The analysis ultimately reveals how the complex, dynamic networks of sound, space, place and embodiment can be understood to produce and constitute one another.

Keywords:

• Sound Art
• Installation
• Body
• Space
• Amacher, Maryanne
• Leitner, Bernhard

Notes

[1] The American percussionist-turned-installation-artist Max Neuhaus coined the term ‘sound installation’ in 1968 to describe ‘sound works without a beginning or an end, where the sounds [are] placed in space rather than in time’ (Neuhaus, 1994, p. 42).

[2] In Laurie Anderson's Handphone Table (1978), a pine table conceals a playback system of wires connected to nodes in which seated listeners place their elbows, receiving sound through them. Listeners become an embodiment of Anderson herself, who was similarly positioned ‘somewhere between concentration and depression’ when she conceived this piece. The text is by seventeenth-century English metaphysical love poet George Herbert.

[3] The designation ‘site-specific’ means that a work is intended to be shown in a specific location, e.g., a particular room or exhibition space, or a specific outdoor location. While all sound works are necessarily site-related, many can be exhibited in multiple, diverse sites—and are therefore not considered to be site-specific (for more on site-specific sound, see LaBelle, 2004).