Auditing Acoustic Ecology

Abstract

General definitions are not usually of much operational value. Attempts to systematise the body of research and practice denoted by the phrase acoustic ecology are likely to miss the more salient fact, which this international meeting recognizes, that it is a field which, ever since its initial mapping by Schafer, Westerkamp et al, has shown a remarkable capacity to lead to other events. Whether or not acoustic ecology should possess a disciplinary identity, its current state is one of bifurcation. One camp, primarily composed of sound activists (composers, sound artists) associates acoustic ecology with the aesthetic exploration of sound environments. The implicit object is ameliorative, to draw attention to a neglected dimension of the everyday world, and, by appealing to the listener’s musical sensibilities, to enlist support for its preservation and protection. Another camp, mainly represented by anthropologists and historians, regards acoustic ecology primarily as a strategic tool for resisting the visualism of Western analytical thinking. Applied to diverse cultures and historical periods, it unveils dimensions of social and cultural signification that a deaf perusal would inevitably miss...