Numerosos estudios en las últimas décadas muestran cómo el sonido es un importante elemento capaz de proporcionar nuevos conocimientos sobre el entorno y sobre las relaciones entre el ser humano y el medio. El sonido posee unas cualidades físico-sensoriales-perceptivas particulares, que conectan lo emocional y lo racional. Permite por tanto abordar de forma amplia el conocimiento y el análisis de algo tan complejo como la experiencia y la vivencia del lugar. Hoy asistimos a un fuerte desarrollo de métodos, herramientas y (...) estrategias de intervención en el entorno con el paisaje sonoro como protagonista. Como producto de una colectividad, el paisaje sonoro se sitúa en un lugar privilegiado en el pensamiento contemporáneo. Sus conceptos y métodos sonoros surgen a partir de experiencias sensibles del lugar en relación directa con una comunidad. La utilización de métodos in situ (recorridos, cartografías, archivos sonoros, performances y acciones sonoras colectivas) en este ámbito son expresiones de gran interés generadas alrededor de la escucha colectiva del lugar. Estos estudios muestran la importancia de los aspectos sensoriales y cómo a través del sonido y la escucha se da una reapropiación del espacio, de nuestro entorno, del reconocimiento del otro y del lugar. Presentamos tres proyectos de investigación con la complejidad del ambiente sonoro como elemento común. Estos proyectos se centran en tres situaciones diferentes, el periodo de la COVID-19, el estudio de paisajes sonoros históricos, y el estudio del ambiente sonoro contemporáneo. Estos trabajos ponen un foco de interés particular en la complejidad de las percepciones y relatos de los ciudadanos como fuente de conocimiento. (shrink)

How can sound and space be connected not only in a metaphorical sense? Over the last decades, philosophy of sound, aesthetics, and musicology have shown increasing interest in space inquiry. However, the way we interact with each other, communicate in space, and gather information about/in space is rooted in sound in a completely different way from those of musical metaphors. In this paper, I present an analysis of the role sound plays in the constitution of both space and relations of (...) intimacy within it. Starting from the wealthy tips that E. T. Hall gives to us in order to delineate a new understanding of proxemics that includes sound experience, I argue that sound, silence, and noise are essential to determine the intimate space and the way we interact with it. Moving from a classical proxemics perspective, the analysis will focus on the intimate relation between sound, space, and body, dialoguing with phenomenology, anthropology, semiotics, and philosophy of space. (shrink)

Musicians and theorists such as the radiophonic pioneer Pierre Schaeffer, view the products of new audio technologies as devices whereby the experience of sound can be displaced from its causal origins and achieve new musical or poetic resonances. Accordingly, the listening experience associated with sonic art within this perspective is ‘acousmatic’; the process of sound generation playing no role in the description or understanding of the experience as such. In this paper I shall articulate and defend a position according to (...) which an adequate phenomenology of auditory experience must refer to mechanisms of sound generation. This position is shown to follow from a phenomenology of sounds as located events and a physicalist account of auditory properties as features of the temporal development of such events. (shrink)

This article argues for an epistemology of music, stating that dealing with music can be considered as a process of knowledge acquisition. What really matters is not the representation of an ontological musical reality, but the generation of music knowledge as a tool for adaptation to the sonic world. Three major positions are brought together: the epistemological claims of Jean Piaget, the biological methodology of Jakob von Uexküll, and the constructivistic conceptions of Ernst von Glasersfeld, each ingstress the role of (...) the music user rather than the music. Dealing with music, in this view, is not a matter of representation, but a process of semiotization of the sonorous environment as the outcome of interactions with the sound. Hence the role of enactive cognition and perceptual-motor interaction with the sonic environment. What is considered a central issue is the way how listeners as subjects experience their own phenomenal world or Umwelt, and how they can make sense out of their sonic environment. Umwelt-research, therefore, is highly relevant for music education in stressing the role of the listener and his/her listening strategies. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine the relationship between new technologies and listening, starting from a distinction between two different levels. The first concerns the role new technologies play in the “mere” reproduction and diffusion of music materials that are not necessarily classifiable in the category of the so-called “technological music”; the second concerns the listening modes unavoidably involved in the reception of a music product, due to its very nature. To this end I shall focus my attention on some elements (...) that characterize both music production and reception: historical development of the relationship between technology and music; technologically mediated non-live listening; technologically mediated live listening; ontological oscillation in a musical work of art following its digitalization. These are issues that also bring into play aesthetics in a developmental stage of this discipline, in which a philosophical reflection on technological music may contribute to formulate – as J. Demers wrote – «a theory that acknowledges the interconnectedness of aesthetics with culture and society». (shrink)

Comment identifier le« médium technique» d'un compositeur contemporain? Pour esquisser une réponse, nous nous appuyons sur une étude réalisée en collaboration avec Jacques Theureau, portant sur l'activité de composition de Philippe Leroux. En reconstituant la genèse de son œuvre Voi(rex), nous avons observé une constante interpénétration de plusieurs âges techniques et technologiques, dont une partie peut être rattachée directement aux préoccupations wébériennes. Passer par une analyse de détail des opérations compositionnelles et de leurs milieux techniques permet de saisir la dynamique (...) (re)productrice d'un médium technique encore sans nom. (shrink)

Editorial: Objects and Sound Perception Content Type Journal Article Pages 5-17 DOI 10.1007/s13164-009-0006-3 Authors Nicolas J. Bullot, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Centre de Recherches sur les Arts et le Langage (CRAL/CNRS) 96 Bd Raspail 75006 Paris France Paul Égré, Institut Jean-Nicod (ENS/EHESS/CNRS) Département d’Etudes Cognitives de l’ENS 29 rue d’Ulm 75005 Paris France Journal Review of Philosophy and Psychology Online ISSN 1878-5166 Print ISSN 1878-5158 Journal Volume Volume 1 Journal Issue Volume 1, Number 1.

In this paper we list the various criticisms that have been formulated against introspection, from Auguste Comte denying that consciousness can observe itself, to recent criticisms of the reliability of first person descriptions. We show that these criticisms rely on the one hand on poor knowledge of the introspective process, and on the other hand on a naïve conception of scientific objectivity. Two kinds of answers are offered: the first one is grounded on a refined description of the process of (...) becoming aware of one's experience and describing it, the second one relies on a comparison with the methods of the experimental sciences. We conclude the article by providing a renewed definition of 'the truth' of a first person description. (shrink)

Music theory has to reinvent itself. Century-long paradigms have to be revisited, and recent terminologies and concepts coming from other fields of music have to find room within the traditional frameworks, particularly in connection with electronic music. In this work, I make an attempt at depicting a framework that might turn useful to further advancements in music theory, by representing the relation between electroacoustic and traditional musics within a scenario dominated by the Philosophy of Language. The Philosophy of Language is (...) herein proposed as a possible philosophical asset to counterbalance some limits of Phenomenology, which has dominated the field of electroacoustic music since its appearance. Within this scenario, the work suggests the notions of "mimesis" and "cadence" as two valid terms to help creating a common ground between the two genres, discussing them in detail and proposing new interpretations for both concepts. (shrink)

The present study is a theoretical discussion concerning some of the important processes that characterize human perception, which is understood as a fundamental structure of consciousness. The aim is to acquire new insights for a better comprehension of the human experience in the world and the way individual subjects become familiar with their environment. To accomplish this task, the experience of listening to music is analysed due to the widespread acceptance of music as an important aspect of human life. With (...) reference to a various research studies and hypothesis focused on the way listeners understand music, principles of perceptual organization which allow immediate awareness of music are investigated. Particular attention is given to studies in the field of music perception and cognition. Through an analysis of the main mental processes involved, the goal is to describe several relevant aspects of how listeners understand music at the perceptual level and constitute musical meanings in a subjective manner. This constitution results in a listener’s ability to become immediately aware of their auditory experience as having a specific meaning – that of being, first of all, a musical experience. Focusing on everyday experience and exposure to music, expectation and anticipation are presented as fundamental principles that contribute to the knowledge of the auditory environment and the meaning which acoustic events acquire for a subject. An in-depth analysis of their specific features will show the different influence expectation and anticipation have on a listener’s basic perceptual comprehension of music and in the constitution of musical meanings that are subjectively characterized. Within the framework of a theoretical investigation into human processes of musical knowledge acquisition, the additional objective is to create a dialogue between empirical research results in the field of music cognition and phenomenological descriptions of the structures of human consciousness. In particular, through clarification of the specific terminology that characterizes these two fields of research, the intent is to go beyond the historical gap which has existed between them. This combination of perspectives may increase our understanding of the way human beings know the world and learn how to react to the events which they encounter. (shrink)

This text is a commentary on the nature of my principle artistic preoccupations over a period of research-creation spanning 2011 and 2013. The works discussed cover, each in their own way, various approaches to sound composition linked to physical objects. In effect, the object proves to be a fundamental element at the heart of discourse, which, though anchored in sound, is often multi-disciplinary. The object here is thus taken apart in its affective, conceptual, performative, visual, as well as sonic properties. (...) The first part of this text illustrates the nature of the relationship between the physical object and the works submitted for this doctoral thesis. It focuses on the journey of the works: from their genesis in the artist’s collections of objects to their life on stage where the objects are used as visual elements in a performative context. The second part is dedicated to the conceptual and aesthetic content of the works, from which flow the principal elements of their discourse. Here, the relationships between the work, the concept and the sonic material are established, which together make up their aesthetic. (shrink)