Critical Theory Audible Feedback Systems
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Critical Theory and Audible Feedback Systems: a textual construction of acoustic space A thesis submitted in (partial) fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Inge Ølmheim 2011 School of Art RMIT University August 2011 ! "! Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Inge Ølmheim 29 August, 2011 ! ""! Abstract In this project I set out to devise a series of object specific audible feedback investigations founded in Derridean deconstructive terminology. The parameters for this study were drawn from terminology as it existed in the time period of mid to late 1960s, the era in which Jacques Derrida first published the texts that became the foundation for the theory known as deconstruction. I begin with specific elements within this theory defining my investigations into the physical objects. I then translate the findings from these examinations back into the theory via relevant science of the era from which the deconstructive texts were published, specifically advances within cybernetics that resulted in the new science of systems theory. I am then able to examine these physical objects in terms of their audibility and feedback processes, based in the structures from which the theory was extracted. I do this in order to bridge the gap between the physical investigations into the recording devices, and the theory that initially instigated the project. I link the objects - tape/reel-to-reel/minidisc and dat recorders – which also stem from advances within the natural sciences of the same time period, to draw parallels and connections from these aspects of science into a deconstructive context. ! """! Table of Contents List of Figures vii Introduction 1 Project Outline 4 Mapping the Theory 9 Knowledge Paradigms and Critical Theory 9 Contextualising Deconstruction 10 Derrida, Deconstruction and Language 12 Introducing Deconstruction 14 Bridging Deconstruction and Systems Theory 18 Freud and Derrida 20 Notes from the Natural Sciences 24 The Sine Wave 24 Feedback 25 Phase Space 27 Applied Poststructuralism in the Arts 29 Feedback in Sound Arts 31 Project Structure 35 Chapter 1: Presence without Difference – Divisibility of the point Introduction 38 Metaphysics – Presence Without Difference 38 The Divisibility of the Point 40 First iteration 45 Conclusion 47 ! "#! Chapter 2: Structure and the Emergence of Supplementarity Introduction 48 Structure 49 Emergence 50 Supplementarity 51 Second Iteration 52 Conclusion 57 Chapter 3: Reversal – the Trace and Erasure of Reinscription Introduction 59 Reversal and Reinscription 60 Arche-trace and Erasure 62 Topology 64 Third Iteration 65 Conclusion 68 Chapter 4: Iterability Introduction 69 The Necessary Possibility of Repetition 69 Iterability 70 Systems Theory and the Computer 73 Fourth Iteration 76 Conclusion 78 Chapter 5: Resonant Frequencies Introduction 79 The Theoretical Phase Space 79 Hypothesis – The Hypothetical Object 80 Infrastructures 81 ! #! Local Narratives 83 The Polylogue of Cinders 84 “I am sitting in a room” 85 Fifth Iteration 86 Conclusion 90 Conclusion 92 Appendix 1: First Iteration 95 Appendix 2: Second Iteration 103 Appendix 3: Third Iteration 109 Appendix 4: Fourth Iteration 118 Appendix 5: Fifth Iteration 123 References 125 Recordings 137 ! #"! List of Figures 1. A basic schematic for quadraphonic 4.0 distribution 37 2. SYSTEM #1 98 3. SYSTEM #2 99 4. SYSTEM #3 100 5. SYSTEM #4 101 6. SYSTEMS #5-8 102 7. SYSTEM #9 105 8. SYSTEM #10 106 9. SYSTEM #11 107 10. SYSTEM #12 108 11. SYSTEM #13 114 12. SYSTEM #14 114 13. SYSTEM #15 115 14. SYSTEM #16 115 15. SYSTEM #17 116 16. SYSTEM #18 116 17. SYSTEM #19 117 18. SYSTEM #20 117 19. The objects uploaded to individual MySpace pages 122 ! ! #""! _____________________________________________________________________ Introduction In this research project I have created a series of investigations into audible feedback systems through the parameters of deconstructive theory. These parameters were drawn from Jacques Derrida’s influential 1960s texts. (Derrida 1972, 1973 [1967], 1976 [1967], 1978 [1967], 1981, 1982 [1972], 1988 [1972]). Through the development of a series of audible feedback processes, I establish new perspectives to investigate similarities between deconstructive theory and the workings of audible feedback. I focus on objects (recording devices) to form constellations of feedback systems. I use these combinations and compositions of objects in their individual settings to interrogate areas of Derridean deconstructive practice. I contain the scope of the research within the era from which the Derridean terminology used, was developed. Within the context of this project, feedback describes the situation when output from, or information about the result of, a phenomenon in the past will influence occurrences of the same phenomena in the present or the future. When an event is part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop, then the event is said to "feed back" into itself. Audio feedback occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output (Spender and Ghausi 2003). Closed circuit feedback has been a prominent feature in many early experimental electronic music compositions, as seen in the works of David Tudor (1972) and Alvin Lucier (1970). However, while feedback is increasingly practiced in experimental music, theoretical engagements with the development and composition of feedback processes in relation to the arts are limited. For this project I have developed a series of explorations of audible feedback systems based on elements of Derridean deconstruction. One interpretation of the workings of deconstruction when ‘deconstructing’ a text is to draw out conflicting logics of sense and implication - the object being to show that the text never exactly means what it says or says what it means. Derrida’s writings have been predominantly concerned with philosophical, rather than literary texts. Derrida argues that philosophy – like literature – is a product 1 _____________________________________________________________________ of rhetorical figures and devices. Yet what defines philosophy as a discipline is its reluctance to face this fact – it ignores the omnipresence of figural language in the texts of its own past and present. Therefore deconstruction is the process of rhetorical close reading that seizes upon those moments when philosophy attempts – and signally fails – to efface all knowledge of this figural drift (Norris 1999, Gaché 1986). This project sets out to create a series of object specific audible feedback investigations founded in Derridean deconstructive terminology. These investigations are discussed within the context of the zeitgeist they were developed by drawing on the human and natural sciences, as well as sound art of this era. I begin by using Derridean theory to define how I will interact with different physical feedback systems, such as old tape recorders, reel to reel recorders, mini disc and dat recorders. I set the systems in motion, monitor them, then interpret the results via the science of the era from which the deconstructive texts were published. The outdated technology (tape, mini disc, dat) is chosen because it stems from technological advances of the era in which the Derridean deconstructive terminology was developed. The use of these systems creates an opportunity to examine the space between the physical investigations and the science of the era, such as cybernetics and systems theory, to which some of the deconstructive terminology owes its foundation. The investigations into the physical objects is brought back through the theory from which it originated. This brings another level of circularity to the project. The project folds back on itself by instigating the project through the theory. In Writing and Difference, Derrida links the very meaning of deconstruction to a kind of circularity, when he states; “All these deconstructive discourses and all their analogues are trapped in a kind of circle. This circle is unique. It describes the form of the relation between the history of metaphysics and the deconstruction of the history of metaphysics. There is no sense in doing without the concepts of metaphysics in order to shake metaphysics. We have no language – no 2 _____________________________________________________________________ syntax, no lexicon – which is foreign to this history; we can denounce not a single deconstructive proposition which has not already had to slip into the form, the logic, and the implicit postulations of precisely what it seeks to contest” (Derrida 1978 [1967]). 3 _____________________________________________________________________ Project Outline This research begins with an analysis of the history and theory within which I have demarcated this research project. I then divide the practical iterations of this research into five projects, narrated here in individual chapters. In the first four iterations of the project, I work with specific terminology drawn from Derridean deconstruction. For the fifth part, I combine these four