Western thought has long assumed a special relationship between vision and knowledge: Seeing is believing. But what about the traffic between sonic experience and ideas? How do inherited beliefs about sound, its effects, and its meanings inflect our sonic encounters? And what about sound’s role in shaping the way we understand our world? Sunday’s first panel brought together artists and scholars whose work takes up sound-knowledge questions in various ways, exploring intersections of thought, perception, and technology (no less than science, philosophy, and politics) in acoustic space. The deceptively simple question “What is sound?” became an opportunity to reflect on the slipperiness of the term: is it an object, an event, a relation in space? What about vibrations felt by other means, or frequencies perceptible (at times even damaging) to other species but not our own? Together, the panel explored what it means to “think sonically,” when our language is so dominated by visual metaphors (when “I see” means “I understand”) and the aural lingo at our disposal is sometimes found lacking. To this end, Jennifer Heuson took on the popular term “soundscape,” drawing links to colonial notions of landscape (primitive, timeless, uninhabited) and describing the impact of “soundscape tourism” on indigenous communities in the American Midwest. For Donna Legault, however, sonic terrains also encompass spaces constructed by the artist in order to immerse bodies in unusual vibratory relations, and so the concept of acoustic territory emerged as a more adaptable and less loaded term for describing sound’s spatial and experiential aspects. John Shiga quickly expanded this territory into the lab and the ocean with his discussion of military SONAR technology as an ear-led medium of exploration, but also as a danger to the too-little understood sensoria of sea life. Finally, these discussions of synaesthesia and the non-human agencies led to Paul Jasen’s closing invitation to also consider sound as a route to un-knowing.
PAUL JASEN is an Ottawa-based cultural theorist and DJ. He holds a PhD in Cultural Mediations from Carleton University, where he also teaches courses in popular music and sound studies. Paul’s research combines interests in music, sonic-sensory experience, and philosophy. He is currently completing a book on bass and the body. DJing under the names Autonomic and Mr. Bump, Paul has also been featured on radio and podcasts in Canada, the United States and Britain.
The heart of the conference involves four separate discussions on the relationship of sound and space to be led by four artists/researchers; bringing together creative thinkers from Montréal, Toronto, New York City, San Francisco, and of course right here in Ottawa. Planned as dynamic free flow conversations, we are excited about what ideas will unfold from these exchanges! Building up to the major discussion panels is a keynote address from Dr. Barry Blesser, a digital audio pioneer and co-author of the fascinating interdisciplinary exploration – Spaces Speak: Are you listening? On Friday, a daytime symposium with the Carleton School of Architecture will explore specific ideas about the built environment and the sonic experience, while at night a collaboration with Pecha Kucha Ottawa brings together artists, designer and researchers for a rapid fire exploration of the role of sound in the urban fabric.
What we know (and what think we know) about sound fills volumes.
Join us as Macy Siu gives us the lowdown on another development from the Digital Economies Lab – the Offer/Need Machine. In an era where the gig economy has monetized every informal network from ride sharing to pet sitting, the Offer/Need Machine proposes a network of decentralized reciprocity. Pay close attention to when Siu explains the need for an anti-capitalist model and more-than-human design.
This discussion brings together artist, scholar and Director of Creating Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations at the Canada Council for the Arts, Steven Loft; craft historian Sandra Alfoldy; architect Tom Bessai; and fashion designer, Valerie Lamontagne, to consider the way we talk about making.