Tuning the Theater of War; Machine, Narration and the Sonic Meltdown.
Author: Thomas Watkiss
Abstract
The alarm, the broadcast and the concussion of war- the onset of confrontation enlist a residuum of new tones in its outbreak. Sounds consequential of each other: programmed, with or without narration for the plains of which it clears. The human auditive registry, whether tuned for attention or alarm, functions from its own vulnerability and this, by nature, provides ground for an awakening public consciousness, developments in art and social movements. As twentieth-century society filled the cities and the industrial terrain, the most discriminate of political parties gained ground with its scope of command. Through sound, the voice for authority can persuade the most remote ears in receiving the message.
The French economist Jacques Attali wrote that noise represents a practice in which existing codes of taste are challenged and suspended. Everywhere in society “codes analyze mark restrain, channel the primitive sounds of language, of the body, of tools, of objects of the relations to self and others.” Sound, as in any other form of human representation, is equivalent to the articulation of a space, indicating limits, territory, a border and the way to define oneself (to make oneself heard) within it. For developments in music, the avant-guard matured fastest in relation World War I and World War II, as have social movements in relation to Vietnam. The theater of new possibilities with the conflict in Iraq, where the outcome is indeterminate, and the relationship of broadcast in war demonstrate the identification of new tonalities for political stability as well as social upheaval.
The arena of sound in the immediacy of war invites the discussion: What is it to open the sonic landscape? For the listener, the auditory landscape appears as a vulnerable space for disorientation or dislocation. A select number of artists have given attention to these phenomena, and as audio signals continue to cluster the ether, the possibilities of working with this widen. As communication often has to do with the place, object and thing being watched, audio correspondence does not happen the same way as the way we perceive things visually, so how does one construct a sonic landscape? A point on this needs to be made as the only means in the curing of sound, recording, must be able to last beyond generations, or it will risk becoming a leaf of a disposable culture rather than a document of the time it represented. In this setting, the vulnerability of the listening audience leaves the aspect of being a backdrop, and more of a frontier for both artist and listener.
Thesis Defense: May 24, 2006 09:00 Svarta Havet, Konstfack, Stockholm Sweden.
