Title Contact Zones and Elsewhere Fields: The Poetics and Politics of Environmental Sound Arts Type The sis URL https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/8662/ Dat e 2 0 1 5 Citation Wright, Mark Peter (2015) Contact Zones and Elsewhere Fields: The Poetics and Politics of Environmental Sound Arts. PhD thesis, University of the Arts London. Cr e a to rs Wright, Mark Peter Usage Guidelines Please refer to usage guidelines at http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/policies.html or alternatively contact [email protected] . License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives Unless otherwise stated, copyright owned by the author Contact Zones and Elsewhere Fields: The Poetics and Politics of Environmental Sound Arts Mark Peter Wright PhD thesis, May 2015 CRiSAP (Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice) University of the Arts, London Abstract How is agency distributed “in the field” and how can the practice of field recording critically manifest the relationship between humans and non-humans? This thesis posits an original art practice of field recording based on a perspective I am calling “Inter-agential”. Employing the self-reflexive anthropological turn of the 1970’s as parallel critique throughout, I argue environmental sound art has ignored the politics of observer-subject relations and instead engaged place and sound through divisive legacies of conservation and composition. I propose a hybrid conceptual framework from contemporary sound and anthropological studies that foregrounds issues relating to ethics, agency and representation. These subjects are examined in practice by converting “the field” into a collaborative and contested arena for intervention and performance. The result is a unique and formally diverse body of work that seeks to actively disrupt, critique and re-imagine the ontological foundations of field recording through an original and politicised aesthetics. All practice-based experimentation has been conducted in one fixed location along the North-East Coast of England called South Gare. It is an industrial and ecologically embroiled site, both in terms of its history and present day impact. I situate this site-specific setting through artistic legacies found in Land Art. This context helps to re-imagine modes of documentation, production and subjectivity within field recording and builds a nuanced understanding of the field in relation to the representation of place and sonic experience. Key words: aesthetics, bio-critical incidents, contact zones, elsewhere fields, field recording, inter-agential, new materialism, trans-hearing. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... I DVD TRACK LISTING & ACCESSIBILITY ....................................................................... II COMMON TERMS ............................................................................................................... III THESIS INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................... 2 CRITICAL CONTEXT ............................................................................................................... 6 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS & NEOLOGISMS .................................................................... 12 STRUCTURE & CONTENTS ................................................................................................... 15 FIELD RECORDING & ITS ORIGINS ...................................................................................... 18 PHASE ONE: REACHING THE LIMITS OF FIELD RECORDING & SOUNDSCAPE STUDIES ................................................................................................................................. 23 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 24 SOUNDSCAPE STUDIES: HISTORY, AIMS & METHODS ...................................................... 24 CRITICISMS ........................................................................................................................... 28 THE CONTEMPORARY LISTENING BLOCK ......................................................................... 31 SILENCE & SILENCING ........................................................................................................ 34 NOSTALGIA, VIBRATIONS & AESTHETICISED DEAD ENDS ............................................... 39 SUMMARY: AIMS & ORIGINALITY ...................................................................................... 45 PHASE ONE PRACTICE REFLECTION: FAILING TO HEAR ..................................... 48 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 49 SOUTH GARE ....................................................................................................................... 50 A LINE MADE BY LISTENING .............................................................................................. 54 PERIPHERAL CONVERSATIONS ........................................................................................... 61 SEVERING ALL TIES: A FEW DAYS OF FANTASTICAL THOUGHT. ..................................... 66 30 MINUTES OF LISTENING ................................................................................................. 70 PHASE ONE CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 80 PHASE TWO: RE-APPROACHING THE FIELD ............................................................. 83 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 84 INGOLD: DWELLING & THE TASK ...................................................................................... 85 IN RESPONSE TO INGOLD .................................................................................................... 88 VOEGELIN: SUBJECTIVE CREATION .................................................................................... 91 IN RESPONSE TO VOEGELIN ................................................................................................ 94 COX: MATERIAL NETWORKS & AGENCIES ........................................................................ 97 IN RESPONSE TO COX & NEW MATERIALISM: KEY POINTS FOR AN ORIGINAL PRACTICE ............................................................................................................................................ 101 SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... 105 PHASE TWO PRACTICE REFLECTION: TOWARDS AN INTER-AGENTIAL PRACTICE ............................................................................................................................ 107 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 108 A PROPOSED VOCABULARY EXCHANGE ......................................................................... 111 MUT(E)UAL CONSENT ....................................................................................................... 120 RE-CAPTURING .................................................................................................................. 132 PHASE TWO CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 143 INTER-AGENTIAL PERSPECTIVE ........................................................................................ 145 INTER-AGENTIAL AESTHETICS ......................................................................................... 147 PHASE THREE: CONTACT IN THE FIELD .................................................................. 148 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 149 FINDING, LOOSING & CROSSING THE FIELD ................................................................... 150 CONTACT ZONES & ELSEWHERE FIELDS ......................................................................... 160 GLOBAL NETWORKS & THE NON-SITE OF SOUND .......................................................... 165 SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... 168 PHASE THREE PRACTICE REFLECTION: THE POETICS OF LETTING GO ........ 170 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 171 THERE OR THEREABOUTS .................................................................................................. 173 TASKED TO HEAR .............................................................................................................. 180 (AUTO) DIALOGICAL FEEDBACK: TOWARDS AN ARCHIVE OF LOSS ............................. 187 PHASE THREE CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 195 THESIS CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 198 MOTIVATIONS & ORIGINALITY ........................................................................................ 199 SITE-SPECIFICITY & LOSS ..................................................................................................