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Platial Phenomenology and Environmental Composition View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by De Montfort University Open Research Archive Platial Phenomenology and Environmental Composition by Robindra Raj Parmar MA Music Technology Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Doctorate of Philosophy at the Institute for Sonic Creativity De Montfort University May 2019 Acknowledgements Thanks to my supervisors Dr. Peter Batchelor and Prof. John Young for guid- ance throughout this process, and to all who provided critical feedback, particu- larly Dr. James Andean and Dr. Giuseppe Torre. Thanks to my examiners, Prof. Simon Emmerson and Dr. Suk-Jun Kim, for their valuable insights. This re- search was predicated on the generous contributions and inspiring work of Dal- las Simpson and Robert Curgenven. This work would not exist without the on- going support of Susannah Kelly, to whom I owe my deepest thanks. ii Abstract This study concerns field recordings, location audio gathered from unscored and unexpected sounds, which retain an indexical relationship to their origin in the natural world. The term “environmental music” describes aesthetic works that use field recordings as primary material. This practice requires an engage- ment with the ontology and phenomenology of place, but such relationships have remained under-theorised. This study addresses this lacuna by developing a rich vocabulary of place that can aid both the practice and analysis of environ- mental music. The historical development begins with the multiplicity of con- cepts of place known to the Ancient Greeks. One of these, Ptolemy’s geos, based on a God’s-eye view of the world, has dominated understandings of the world and its effects, hence the term geography. This perspectivism was reinforced first by Alberti’s optics, which placed a viewer in a strict topological relationship to the object of their gaze, and then by Cartesian rationalism, a philosophy that reduced place to mere secondary characteristics of an ordered, homogeneous space. Against this background, alternative models of place will be discussed. Topos, exemplified by tales like The Odyssey, emphasises the perambulations of an individuated subject, foregrounding the experiential nature of the journey. The klimata of Ptolemy models place as psychic zones of influence on the Earth. Plato’s khōros is both receptacle and material, a generative site of instability and unknowability. Taken together, these concepts assert the primacy of place as milieu, a responsive context that shapes, and is shaped by, being-in-the-world. The word platial is proposed to encompass this understanding. This thesis is supported by the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau- Ponty, as interpreted by Tim Ingold and Edward Casey. Analysis of the environ- mental music of Dallas Simpson, Robert Curgenven, and the author illustrate how platial thinking can provide deep insights into a variety of creative sonic practices. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements..................................................................................................ii Abstract...................................................................................................................iii Chapter 1: Introduction...........................................................................................9 1.1 Impetus and context for this study...........................................................9 1.2 Field recording and electroacoustic composition...................................11 1.3 The anecdotal and environmental music................................................15 1.4 Methodology and literature review.........................................................25 1.5 Overview of this study.............................................................................29 Chapter 2: Sounding place: the author’s practice.................................................33 2.1 Introduction.............................................................................................33 2.2 Caged Birds and the recording of birdsong...........................................35 2.3 In that place, the air was very different..................................................41 Chapter 3: Models of place: geos, topos, choros, khōros.....................................47 3.1 Introduction.............................................................................................47 3.2 Geos, choros, and klimata in Ptolemy...................................................49 3.3 Khōros in Plato’s Timaeus......................................................................54 3.4 The topos of Aristotle..............................................................................59 3.5 Topos and the wandering subject...........................................................61 3.6 Walking and place-making.....................................................................64 3.7 Tuan and topophilia................................................................................65 3.8 Bachelard and topophilia.......................................................................70 3.9 Auden and topophilia..............................................................................74 3.10 Conclusion.............................................................................................76 Chapter 4: The phenomenology of place...............................................................81 4.1 Introduction.............................................................................................81 4.2 Space and place in Descartes..................................................................83 4.3 Ocularcentrism and the sonic turn.........................................................87 4.4 Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology......................................................92 4.5 Schaeffer, Husserl, and the phenomenological reduction..................100 v 4.6 Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology.........................................................103 4.7 Platial theory and Casey’s Archytian Axiom........................................108 4.8 Ingold’s platial phenomenology............................................................112 4.9 Conclusion..............................................................................................115 Chapter 5: The sonic chorography of Dallas Simpson........................................121 5.1 Introduction............................................................................................121 5.2 Approaches to recording.......................................................................122 5.3 Mobile listening and portable audio devices........................................125 5.4 The psychoacoustics of headphone listening.......................................129 5.5 The phenomenology of headphone listening.......................................134 5.6 Da-sein and environmental chorography.............................................137 5.7 Case study: aquapump..........................................................................143 5.8 Potentialities and listening: the Soundbody........................................149 5.9 Summary of Simpson’s platial practice.................................................151 5.10 Afterword: a circle, a promise.............................................................153 Chapter 6: Robert Curgenven: sound as weather...............................................155 6.1 Introduction...........................................................................................155 6.2 Curgenven’s methods and tools............................................................157 6.3 Platial thinking in They tore the earth.................................................162 6.4 Sirène and the wandering subject.........................................................173 6.5 Sirène and “Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth”.................................179 6.6 Climata: volumetric sound...................................................................183 6.7 Conclusion: sound as weather..............................................................187 Chapter 7: Conclusions.........................................................................................191 References............................................................................................................201 Appendix 1: Discography of Robert Curgenven..................................................217 Appendix 2: Discography of Robin Parmar........................................................219 Appendix 3: Discography of Karl Reich..............................................................221 Appendix 4: Discography of Dallas Simpson.....................................................222 Appendix 5: Dallas Simpson Biography.............................................................224 Appendix 6: Dallas Simpson interviews.............................................................227 1.1 Introduction...........................................................................................227 1.2 Field Recording Questionnaire, 10 July 2016......................................227 1.3 Skype conversation, 14 July 2016.........................................................236 1.4 Shining Woods conversation................................................................246 Appendix 7: aquapump timeline.........................................................................251 Appendix 8: Robert Curgenven biography.........................................................253
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