A Sonic Theory Unsuitable for Human Consumption
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Ikon2
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1080/13534645.2017.1339966
- Title of journal
- Parallax
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 252-265
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 1353-4645
- Open access status
- Technical exception
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13534645.2017.1339966?journalCode=tpar20
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This peer-reviewed journal article argues in favour of approaching sound not simply as an example upon which the validity of philosophical positions can be tested, but rather as an area of research allowing for the critical revision and re-orientation of these debates. Contributing to the field of Theory-Fiction, which focuses on the generative relations between science fiction and contemporary theory, the article draws on a range of philosophical and artistic precursors in order to shift the terms of the debate over the status of the sonic object, at both the empirical and transcendental level. The text makes an original proposition that sound should cease to be a case for the application of theoretical judgments and begin not only to propose but to produce its own conditions of thinkability. The latter, by extension, forces us to reconfigure our sense of the ready distinction between what is and what could be, between certainty and possibility, and between fact and fiction.
The article evaluates scholarship that focuses on the sensory, economic, social, and psychological dimensions of the sonic, pushing the latter towards a more inclusive understanding according to which the audible dimension of sound is only a subset of the broader vibrational continuum. The research for this article was informed by a literature review, an interdisciplinary methodology, and the creation of artworks, publications, presentations and exhibitions by the author’s art research group AUDINT funded by the Arts Council of England. The article is published in Parallax, a peer-reviewed academic journal, for work in cultural studies, critical theory and philosophy. Following the article’s circulation, invitations by academic institutions, contemporary art centres, galleries and festivals followed, where the research was presented. The article has been quoted widely and is considered seminal in a wider theoretical and artistic movement attempting to revisit and redefine sound studies.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
