..To those who find joy in listening, nature offers a ceaseless symphony of sound, with infinite possibilities for engagement and exploration. (from th scientifci to the New Age)
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Acoustic Activism
Acoustic ecology emerged as a defined field during the 1970s at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. There, a cross-disciplinary mix of philosophy, sociology, and art gave rise to the World Soundscape Project (WSP). Led by writer and composer R. Murray Schafer, WSP participants collected recordings of urban “soundmarks" such as noon whistles, harbor horns, and train station ambiences, documented natural soundscapes and tribal history, and conducted interviews to discover how people react to various sorts of sounds encountered in their daily lives. Perhaps the most influential (and controversial) idea to come out of this early work in acoustic ecology was the idea that natural soundscapes can be characterized as "hi-fi" acoustic environments, while most human sounds, by contrast, are "lo-fi." The analogy to audiophile terms is quite direct: Lo-fi soundscapes are characterized by distortion, broadband noise, and discomfort, while hi-fi natural soundscapes tend to be sound balanced, aesthetically rich, and pleasing to the ear.As ideas such as these spread, one of the first places they had concrete impact was in city planning. While, to a large degree, city sound ordinances were developed to limit dangerously loud sounds and block housing areas from highway noise, the value of open space and parks as sonic refuges has become part of the urban planning mainstream.
In wildland areas, acoustic activism has increased as the ability to retreat from human sounds has diminished. Gordon Hempton is one of many natural sound recordists who have experienced a dramatic decrease in the amount of time he can record without having a human noise (most commonly an engine) intrude. Between 1984 and 1989, the number of locations in Washington State where he could record for 15 daytime minutes without interruptions by human noise intrusions dropped from 21 to just three. Walking with Hempton in his beloved Olympic National Park, a companion might be startled by a sudden grimace his sensitive ears have picked up a distant airplane, breaking the spell of the wild and initiating a gentle torrent of policy prescriptions from this devotee of listening. "Earth is a musical planet, spinning in silent space," he says. “However, the acoustic environment has not received adequate protection. The music of nature and the quiet opportunity to enjoy it are threatened by the noise of man."
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You may have noticed that most of the activity taking place in national parks and other public lands is inspired largely by the desire of other humans to enjoy the natural soundscape, rather than out of concern for the effects of human noises on wildlife. In the most recently emerging area of acoustic activism, the priorities are reversed: For activists focusing on sounds in the seas, the emphasis is squarely on the acoustic rights and needs of wild creatures.
By far the most dramatic issue being addressed in the oceans is the development of a new generation of underwater surveillance technology. The U.S. Navy, in collaboration with allies, is in the testing phase of the Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) system. Using powerful sound waves, LFAS is designed to monitor undersea activity by enemy submarines. With sound as loud as 240 decibels, these systems are planned to permeate 80 percent of the world’s oceans. At peak output, the sound would still be at 120 dB as far as 250 miles away from the source; many fish and whales start avoiding sounds when they reach 120 dB
(Craig says, that's why there are whales and dolphins beaching themselvs on the shore. They can either not stand the intensity of sound, or it totally fucks up their orientatng system)
During tests over the past several years (using source output levels much lower than those planned when the system is implemented), the Navy and its contractors have been looking at the effects of the tests on local marine life, most notably cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises. In the view of LFAS supporters, the results show minimal behavioral disturbance, but acoustic activists following the issue disagree strongly.
(((((((Noise: possible factor for some, unlikely for othersThe researchers mention chronic noise as a possible source, but only briefly, noting that some of the deaf dolphins lived in areas where they may have been exposed to ship and boat noise for much of their lives, but that other deaf individuals were from locations where they were “unlikely” to have experienced elevated chronic noise levels.)))))))))))
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Soundscape Art
In the 1970s, environmental sound recordings first made a splash in popular culture, spearheaded by Irv Teibel’s Environments series. These LPs featured rich, un-narrated ambiences of specific habitats, recorded and reproduced with state-of-the-art stereo technology, creating a compelling listening experience. When Songs of the Humpback Whale became a best-seller, the doors were opened for a wave of natural sound releases, most of which were close variations on the Environments formula.During the 1990s, a new generation of soundscape producers emerged who are stretching the bounds of the genre in exciting new ways. Some have built on the foundations of traditional nature sounds pioneers, presenting portraits of specific habitats, while developing highly individual approaches. For example, Lang Elliott is known for stunning close-up recordings of birds, as well as his series of habitat titles that feature similarly amazing close-up recordings of rich sound communities. Jonathon Storm, by contrast, specializes in the subtle variations in water’s voices and the soft natural quiet of forest landscapes.
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The individual voices of today’s soundscape artists reflect the genre’s emergence as a full-fledged creative medium, much as photography blossomed in the early 1900s. In both fields, a documentary medium was enlivened by artists who explored new perspectives, subject matter, social content, and innovative studio techniques. As with photography’s birth as a creative art, which began in Europe’s avant garde communities, soundscape art has been a growing presence in experimental gallery circles since the 1960s and today stands poised for widespread attention and appreciation.
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The German art critic Walter Benjamin once rebuked the Surrealists, demanding that artists who assume the mantle of revolutionaries would do better engaging actual political struggles than promoting their individual artistic careers. Benjamin challenges artists to pursue sustained and committed relationships with social movements.
A challenge to instrumentalism, a critique of goal-driven strategizing, a deconstruction of exclusions, and the distribution of power can inform art's contribution to an encounter with(in) social movements. Solidity, duration, and faith in the process become necessary conditions for such an encounter. As Ultra-red member Leonardo Vilchis argues on the release "Encuentro" (PR 2-01-011), let these terms define the basis of a sound political art practice. (..................)
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Susan Phillipsz
(won Turner prize over Dexter Dalwood n stuff)
plus some second thoughts OOOOO
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Operation Just Cause
Operation Blue Spoon (officially changed to Operation Just Cause on December 17th) began at 1 a.m., December 20th. U.S. forces took control of their targets quickly and easily, and the operation was an overwhelming success, accomplishing two of its three stated goals within two days. The conflict resulted in 23 U.S. casualties and 2,000 Panamanian casualties, both military and civilian. Noriega eluded U.S. forces until he showed up four days later at the residence of the Vatican's representative in Panama, the Papal Nuncio, where he requested and received political asylum. Beginning on December 27, 1989, the troops surrounding the residence set up loud speakers and began blasting "ear-splitting" heavy metal songs day and night. Finally, on January 3, 1990, Noriega surrendered, left the residence, and was immediately extradited to Miami where he was put on trial for the drug charges. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison, and was first eligible for parole in 2002.
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That certain freedom, into which it undertook to transform its anarchistic condition, was converted in the very hands of this music into a metaphor of the world against which it raises its protest.7
In Adorno's near-eschatological judgment, music has in part failed in its capacity to transform its conditions by becoming a mere metaphor - what Deleuze and Guattari call a tracing - of the world as it is. Adorno again: "It is obedient to the historical tendency of its own material - blindly and without contradiction."8 Thus for any music which boasts its status as part of a universal language is not the liberating utopia it hopes to be but, rather, the sad repetition it is bound to be.
For us, what Adorno identified with grim resignation, is precisely where musicians, as social actors, have the potential to break apart the monopoly of universal signification (under the sign of capital) by transforming the soundscape of everyday life. Perhaps our experience as activists convinces us toward such optimistic folly. We were musicians and club promoters before we were theorists. And we were activists (as our police records demonstrate) before we were promoters. This fact, an admittedly ontological move on our part, instigated on a day in May 1994, informs in everyway our approach to ambience, not as the production of commodities (records to promote - the traditional role of the disc jockey), but rather as the production of space.http://www.ultrared.org/lm_intro.html
http://www.ultrared.org/lm_background.html
http://www.ultrared.org/lm_dead.html
http://www.ultrared.org/lm_soundbody.html
http://www.ultrared.org/lm_politburo.html
and
a view from outside
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Sonic Weapons Extremely high-power sound waves can break the eardrums of a target and cause severe pain or disorientation. This is usually sufficient to incapacitate a person. Less powerful sound waves can cause humans to experience nausea or discomfort. The use of these frequencies to incapacitate persons has occurred both in counter-terrorist and crowd control settings.
The possibility of a device that produces frequency that causes vibration of the eyeballs — and therefore distortion of vision — was apparently confirmed by the work of engineer Vic Tandy[1][2] while attempting to demystify a “haunting” in his laboratory in Coventry. This “spook” was characterised by a feeling of unease and vague glimpses of a grey apparition. Some detective work implicated a newly installed extractor fan that, Tandy found, was generating infrasound of 18.9 Hz, 0.3 Hz, and 9 Hz.
In 2005 BBC reported that the crew of the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit used a long range acoustic device (LRAD) to deter pirates who chased and attacked the ship [3]. Its actual efficacy, however, has not been established. A similar system is called a "magnetic acoustic device".[4]
The BBC reported in Oct 2006 on a 'mobile' sonic device which is being used in Grimsby, Hull and Lancashire and is designed to deter teenagers from lingering around shops in target areas. The device works by emitting an ultra-high frequency blast (around 19–20 kHz) that teenagers or people under approximately 20 are susceptible to and find uncomfortable. Age-related hearing loss apparently prevents the ultra-high pitch sound from causing a nuisance to those in their late twenties and above, though this is wholly dependent on a young person's exposure to high sound pressure levels.
During the 2009 G20 summit in Pittsburgh, police used sound cannons against protestors.[5]
...Some common bio-effects of electromagnetic or other non-lethal weapons include effects to the human central nervous system resulting in physical pain, difficulty breathing, vertigo, nausea, disorientation, or other systemic discomfort. Interference with breathing poses the most significant, potentially lethal results. Light and repetitive visual signals can induce epileptic seizures (see Bucha effect). Vection and motion sickness can also occur. Cavitation, which affects gas nuclei in human tissue, and heating can result from exposure to ultrasound and can cause damage to tissue and organs.
Studies have found that exposure to high intensity ultrasound at frequencies from 700 kHz to 3.6 MHz can cause lung and intestinal damage in mice. Heart rate patterns following vibroacoustic stimulation has resulted in serious negative consequences such as atrial flutter and bradycardia
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The extra-aural (unrelated to hearing) bioeffects on various internal organs and the central nervous system included auditory shifts, vibrotactile sensitivity change, muscle contraction, cardiovascular function change, central nervous system effects, vestibular (inner ear) effects, and chest wall/lung tissue effects. Researchers found that low frequency sonar exposure could result in significant cavitations, hypothermia, and tissue shearing. No follow on experiments were recommended. Tests performed on mice show the threshold for both lung and liver damage occurs at about 184 dB. Damage increases rapidly as intensity is increased.
Noise-induced neurologic disturbances in humans exposed to continuous low frequency tones for durations longer than 15 minutes has involved in some cases the development of immediate and long term problems affecting brain tissue. The symptoms resembled those of individuals who had suffered minor head injuries.
One theory for a causal mechanism is that the prolonged sound exposure resulted in enough mechanical strain to brain tissue to induce an encephalopathy.[9]
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The birth of the soundscape aesthetics
Wagner's symphonic and choral extravaganzas had signaled a crisis of tonal music, the music that had been composed in Europe for four centuries. Western tonal music had the implicit purpose of building structures that were fundamentally narrative and emotional. Its "purposeful" nature made it predictable to the human cognitive system: one could anticipate how a motif would eventually reach closure, since it revolved around a tonal center.
...the prodromes of "furniture music"...
...Even the more traditional composers at the beginning of the 20th century displayed a post-tonal sensibility: ...
...The next wave of innovators was even more radical...
...These composers fostered a transition away from diatonic melody and towards chromatic freedom that weakened the tonal center and amounted to flirting with atonality...
...At the same time, the impact of exotic music (mostly based on modal scales), as well as of jazz (not only improvised, but also microtonal due to the "blue notes"), was beginning to be felt in Europe...
...
Not only elements of folk music, but even styles borrowed from the music-hall and the circus began to infiltrate classical music...
...At the same time, classical music was under pressure to change its own rules. For example, in 1906 Thaddeus Cahill built the first electronic instrument...
...In 1930 Leon Termen invented the first rhythm machine, the "Rhythmicon". All of these people were considered little more (or less) than eccentric characters, and widely ignored by the musical establishment...
...It wasn't only classical music that was feeling the pressure. The early decades of the century witnessed a general rejection of the traditional codes of artistic behaviors, a rejection that started from Paris...
...This phenomenon fueled the Wagnerian myth of "Gesamtkunstwerk" (total art), that no artist was capable of realizing, but that became a sort of collective subconscious of the international scene...
...Arnold Schoenberg (Austria, 1874) shattered the harmonic certainty centered on the melody by introducing "dodekaphonie...
...
The revolutionary value of serialism, that began with "dodekaphonie" (whose idea was later extended to other musical "parameters" such as timbre, pitch, duration, register), was to usher in a methodic deconstruction of tonality...
...Paradoxically, the artist was gaining more freedom while her art was losing meaning...
...This process led to an almost manic exploration of texture, mostly through timbre and juxtaposing of timbres and overlapping of timbres...
...The relationship between background and foreground was turned upside down: the emphasis shifted towards the background, whereas the foreground became irrelevant...
...
A by-product of the "soundscape" aesthetic was the extension of the orchestra beyond the traditional western instruments. Not only eastern instruments, but also percussion, natural sounds and generic objects became valid "instruments" in sculpting the artist's soundscape...
...Edgar Varese (France, 1883) was the first visionary of this new aesthetics, introducing percussion and noise (and, later, electronics) into the orchestra...
...
Far from being abstracted from society, the soundscape aesthetics largely reflected the disorientation, alienation and neurosis of the urban and industrial world. The loss of identity was reflected in a loss of tonal center. The moral and material chaos were reflected in looser and looser structures...
...Even the neoclassics couldn't escape the new vitalism, drifting towards a form of chamber music that was more "pictorial" than narrative...
...The inertia of the classical-music establishment (in the case of the record, also the limitation of the 78 RPM format) gave jazz a head-start of one or two decades...
...Classicism didn't die, but sort of migrated elsewhere, mainly north and east...
...
Chromatic visionaries multiplied, as the new freedom allowed spiritual and political latitude...
...Three Italian composers well represented the quest for the perfect timbric amalgam:...
...New instruments and sounds entered the orchestra...
...If Schoenberg had freed the composer from the tradition, John Cage (USA, 1912) freed the composition from the composer...
...Brion Gysin (Britain, 1916) was the true inventor of the "cut-up" technique made popular by his friend William Burroughs...
...
The end of World War II marked a new period of aesthetic revolution that built upon the most radical ideas of the previous decades while adopting new technologies that had become available...
...In 1948 Pierre Schaeffer (France, 1910) created a laboratory in Paris for "musique concrete" (music made of noises, not notes), basically the practical implementation of Luigi Russolo's theories...
...
Joseph Schillinger published "A Mathematical Basis of the Arts" (1949), in which he proposed that popular music could be composed by combining snippets of existing popular music. Basically, he had envisioned "sampling" before the invention of the sampler...
etc etc etc...
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...A rarely-recorded pioneer of minimalism, Phill Niblock (USA, 1933), tried, fundamentally, to create music without rhythm or melody, by slow accumulation of microtones. Niblock's droning soundscapes originated from the superimposition and juxtaposition of sustained sounds which were, in turn, obtained from reprocessing acoustic instruments. Niblock deliberately chose to limit the number of his recordings, believing that his real composition was the live performances and his real instrument was the tape......Maryanne Amacher (wiki)(USA, 1943) created huge site-specific installations and sonic sculptures that radiated either colossal drones or subliminal ones to elicit music inside the brain ("third ear music")...
(otoacoustic emission)
...noise jazz...
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Civil protests 96/97 in Belrade (wiki)
...The noise was a synthesis of various musical and other cultural codes, the individual identity of each lost in a fusion which became the genuine Voice of the protest. This gradually became more and more articulated in the form of a sound happening or event, which brought a cultural impact to the political protest, an impact which earlier street protests had not had, having been wrapped only in ideological criticism. Moreover, the political and cultural resonance of the protest became so intertwined that neither of them could be explained without the other. However it should be emphasized that it was the political actions which were parasites on the provocative and subversive character of the cultural actions. These included, in addition to the noise, happenings, actions, performances, concerts, radio programs, lectures, exhibitions, distribution of printed matters, placarding, etc...
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An Appraisal of policies of political control
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'Acoustic Ecology'
David Abram
Environmental Sound Matter
...Get out of whatever cage. Forget what hems you in. This is the message to all who need to escape the bounds of stifling limits. For Cage, this view comes after years of observation and question of one thing and one place: the imitation of nature , not in appearance, but in manner of operation.
The idea is stronger because it never came out of nowhere. Cage got it from art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy, who spoke near the last century's turn of process as what we can most learn from the world that surrounds. And the notion is much older than that: it is already there in Aristotle when he says our art completes the clues nature has left for us. This is an old and venerable message. Yet spoken by Cage it is part of the shock of the new.
...Deep into a chamber to shut out all sound. Inside the anechoic room at Harvard in 1952, set up for research into the physics of sound and its lack, Cage still heard two distinct but exactly clear rumblings inside him emanating into the room around. The high sound the whirr of the body's nerves, the low one the thrum of the blood in motion. The body moves, and we will never find the coveted silence.
...In teaching he told students to use art to compose the environment:
"Imagine that the music you are writing is not music but is social relationships, and then ask yourself if you would like to live in that kind of society that would be that kind of music."
great links!!!
http://aporee.org/maps/
http://www.cincocidades.com/en/soundmap/
whale sounds and wow!
http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/soundacts/
sound of Saturn
http://oddstruments.com/blog/composers/
http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/highband/spoils.html
BBC Radio Broadcast
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Neuhaus arose as its wandering creator, who would call some of his works "sound installations." Neuhaus installed his work Time Square (1977 – present) in the famous pedestrian intersection at Broadway and 7th Avenue in New York City. He placed loudspeakers under the ventilation grille of the subway, thus making the materials from its structure resonate with different tones.
...Finally, in another form of sound sensitivity, Scout Arford and Randy Yau have searched for special architectonic buildings in diverse spaces where they can realize non-musical infrasound "concerts" (Infrasounds, 2001). Through FM synthesis, they translate audible tones to infrasound vibrations at a high volume that are mainly perceived by the body instead of being heard with our ears. Here sound and its characteristics are presented as a tactile physical force. As the dramatic, vibrating walls from the place embody the spatial properties of sound, the resonance of our body and of the structure generates awareness about our corporal function in perception.
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In Neuhaus's work and in Infrasounds, the pieces are decontextualized, moved from the concert room to public space. They lack any narrative sense; there is no sound articulation; and their resistance to temporal parameters negates the musical code (without beginning or end). Consequently musical expectation is progressively lost. Questions are produced and the attention to the sound itself, its material, space and context, is stimulated.
What really makes these works approachable is that these are not closed processes. On the contrary, they deal with perpetual and general processes, with social or natural systems, with the daily relation we have with sounds; the sound of church's bell, a river or a cell phone. Therefore it's easier for these works to communicate to an audience not educated artistically or musically, because they allow a different access point, a more democratic one, not by means of intellect or previous knowledge but by favoring the very ways in which we perceive sound.
In the big challenges that exist in considering projects for public spaces (i.e., dealing with its invasive nature and with communication strategies for providing a better experience than the possible confusion to the arbitrary listener), a pertinent result from these works is produced. They transform places that usually don't have a transcendental meaning to a community. They generate a new and special sonic situation that turns an acoustically "irrelevant" zone into an important place for pedestrians. At the same time, people begin to communicate in a place in which they usually would not.
Sound Art is a clear and effective way to help familiarize audible awareness. This may sound illusionary, yet it's still interesting, considering that these concepts are being integrated into other areas. Also, the introduction of other disciplines to sound art, such as sculpture, net.art or electronic music, attract a heterogeneous public that might not be in the habit of "listening". In fact, it is because of this that many Sound Art exhibitions nowadays are still insisting upon older objectives such as changing one's comprehension of the medium as well as changing perceptions and the public's "listening development" by using statements like "open your ears".
It is important to consider these relations today, because the questions made 10 years ago are not the same as now. Democratized technology has drastically changed the way people relate with sound. The possibilities to reproduce, register, manipulate and create sound are, for the very first time in history, in public hands, in the shape of electronics and computers.
Is it necessary to be further conscious about sound, considering the quantity of acoustic spam, the stimulus and noises placed in modern life? Certainly, ignoring them is not the solution, but is it Sound Art considering that auditory awareness is more of a ‘trickle down effect' of the whole practice, a sort of secondary result, and to many a mediocre aim? 3)
Is it necessary to be further conscious about sound, considering the quantity of acoustic spam, the stimulus and noises placed in modern life? Certainly, ignoring them is not the solution, but is it Sound Art considering that auditory awareness is more of a ‘trickle down effect' of the whole practice, a sort of secondary result, and to many a mediocre aim? 3)
When you become conscious of what it is that "they are doing with you" you are in a condition to reflect and formulate your own interests. When you become conscious of the world that you're in, you manipulate your environment more determinedly, which is fundamental to directing your own life. In a practical way, to be conscious of how the mechanisms of perception function gives you the possibility to decide what to accept and what not to. 4)
I think that people are wonderful, and I think this because there are instances of people changing their minds. (I refer to individuals and to myself) - John Cage (Silence)
MoRe fRoM Hz
