Sounding the Anthropocene: Ecoacoustics, Connectivity and Sonic Emplacement

Distinct from the ability of sound to create, invoke, and demarcate space, there exists a dialectical force of displacement within sonic practices. This can range from the experience of latency and echo, to sonification of long distance transmissions such as seismic waves, to the notion of Schaferian 'schizophonia' implicated within field recordings. The act of composition - complimented by phonographic methods - creates opportunities for greater insight and understanding of sonic phenomena in relation to their environment. This project will explore spatial composition and sonic geography, looking at how spaces manifest sound, and how music creates and shapes space in distinctive ways.
Composition is an ideal medium to explore the simultaneously locating and dislocating relationship of sound and space. I investigate: what is the role of sound in creating a fluid, relational, divergent performative space?; how can we study acoustic ecologies through the lens of composition, and more broadly, how can techniques primarily developed for artistic ends serve as methods of research enquiry?; how can the tension between sonic cartography and dislocation be explored through phonographic practices such as field recordings and sonification, especially when used in conjunction with site-specific performance?; finally, what is it to compose 'in situ'?
Intersections of sound and space have been well trodden in musicology, through areas of acoustic ecology (Gallagher, 2016; Allen and Dawe, 2016) and soundscape studies (Schafer, 1977) - natural sonic environments (Cameron and Rogalsky, 2006) and artificial (Pinch and Bijsterveld, 2012) - sound walking (Butler, 2006), sound mapping (Cohen, 2012; Llano, 2018; Thomas, 2010), sound as cartography (Blesser and Salter, 2006), acoustic recordings of place (Gallagher, 2014), mutability of space in field recording practices (Schrimshaw, 2012), and 'acoustic politics of space' (LaBelle, 2010). While these aspects of sound and space have opened up pertinent new perspectives, there has been comparatively little research on the creative processes by which sound makes space.
My research method centres around my practice as a composer. Research will combine writing with praxis, consolidating sound studies literature on soundscapes, sonic cartography, and auditory spatial awareness with reflections and analysis of my own sonic works. This would involve discussing the theoretical shih from Cartesian geography to a spatial, fluid epistemology: a space that is socially produced, and a sonic that is inherently spatial. To do this, I am interested in exploring the dual qualities of Schaferian 'schizophonia' and the implied fidelity of evocation in sound recording and site-specific performance (building on Schrimshaw). I will develop this by exploring the relationship between sound, technology, and the spatial organisation of social life - an area of research particularly relevant in today's age of interconnectivity, hybridity, and networked sociality (Amin 2012). Given the social, spatial, and sonic are co-constitutive (Kanngieser, 2012), by nature my sonic investigations will have significant resonances for the spatial politics of sound. I will acknowledge this through considering sonic technology as a Foucauldian dispotif, utilising a Lefebvrian analysis, and building on work by Attali (1977), Revill (2000), Smith (2000), and Wood (2007).
After theoretical groundwork, I will create acoustic manifestations of these ideas: sonic performances, site-specific audio installations, performative lectures, and soundscape compositions. Artistic techniques and procedures I use as a composer will be complimented by impulse responses, ambisonics, recreation acoustics, ethnographic research (reflecting what it is to be in a space), and my own investigative practice as a performer.