Sound acts: towards a sonic pragmatism

ABSTRACT

The article makes a case for a pragmatist approach to sound studies. My starting point is the ostensible lack of language for analysing the agentic, creative and expressive aspects of sound outside of domains of speech and music. At the same time, recent aesthetic and technological developments have brought about a plethora of sound practices that defy the apparatuses of musicology and linguistic as much as they do the listening-centred perspectives of sound studies. Discussing six examples of such practices taken from interactive sound art and participatory online cultures, I sketch out possible directions for a sonic pragmatism. In the first part, I put forward three possible premises for such a theory: John Dewey’s aesthetics, G.H. Mead’s ontology of acts, and actor-network theory. In the second part, I discuss three potential categories for the analysis of sound acts – affordance, perspective, and gesture – emphasising, respectively, their material, social, and pragmatic aspects. I argue that a pragmatist epistemology can offer substantial insights into both philosophical and cultural aspects of contemporary soundmaking, suspending the familiar dichotomies of perception and production, subject and object, human and nonhuman.

KEYWORDS:

• Pragmatism
• epistemology
• sound art

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For documentation of the work, see http://kathyhinde.co.uk/vocal-migrations/.

2. For documentation of the work, see https://benoitmaubrey.com/arena-berlin/.

3. While Mead’s descriptions mostly operate on the physical level, he does not distinguish between physical and social acts with regard to this model.

4. In fact, Speakers’ Arena subtitle, A Speakers Corner for Berlin, directly references Hyde Park and its Speakers’ Corner.

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC9afOfyCQ4.

6. Mead (1938, 638) refers to A.N. Whitehead’s notion of “prehension” – understood as “perception in the sense which does not involve consciousness but which does involve a relation of the world to the object” – to demonstrate that objects can be thought of a having a kind of perspective as well. He distinguishes, however, between the objects’ prehension and human perspective in that the latter has a social character.

7. For documentation of the work, see https://www.petervogel-heritage.de/en/rhythmic-sounds-1-2/.

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYRFQk2PjO8.

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khOfSVULtsU.

10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h56WLqdD-7I.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vadim Keylin

Vadim Keylin is a cultural and media studies scholar and poet. He holds a PhD from Aarhus University, Denmark. Keylin's research profile is situated at the intersection of sound culture and participatory culture approached from the perspective of pragmatist philosophy. He has written about experimental musical instruments, sound sculpture, and participatory sound art. Keylin serves as the editor of book reviews at Sound Effects Journal.