Von: Schröder, Julia H. via al discourse
Datum: Fri, 20 Nov 2020
Betreff: [ak-discourse] cfp: Listening to places: field recording as an artistic practice and ecological activism
Review Filigrane. Musique, esthétique, sciences société
Call for papers
Listening to places: field recording as an artistic practice and ecological activism
https://revues.mshparisnord.fr/filigrane/index.php?identifier=appel-a-contribution
The unprecedented presence of sound in our societies requires careful consideration, directed towards creating an awareness and an ethics of sound; simultaneously, it calls for renewed artistic practices in music and the arts of sound. One of the most interesting uses of sound to be probed today, both from the ethical and aesthetic standpoints, is definitely field recording.
Field recording corresponds to a set of sound recording practices aiming at reproducing something real. Consubstantial with the use of the microphone, whose advent was part of the development of sound technologies, this practice covers the broad field from the area of everyday life to properly artistic works. Through its documentary dimension, field recording production notably draws near to a number of scientific and documentary concerns (here particularly we think of the relationship it entertains with the anthropology of music). We therefore wish to include in our project proposals merging the issues of science, art, and the documentary.
Subject to occasional disrepute due to its commercial uses (easy listening, tourism for the ear and so on), it can nevertheless get perfectly involved into critical and ecological approaches. In other words, although field recording is not intrinsically connected to any ecological thought (for instance, some of its expressions focus on the sole collection of isolated sound objects), the fact that it comes to merge with the latter seems particularly relevant and productive to us : one need only see the diversity, depth and subtlety of the artistic proposals in that direction (Hildegard Westerkamp, Chris Watson, Francisco López, Marja Ahti, David Monacchi, Félix Blume, Jez Riley French, Graciela Muñoz, Valentina Villaroël, Barry Truax, Jana Winderen, Proyecto Argentina Suena, Proyecto Sonidos de Rosario, to quote but a few).
What is at stake in our proposal is to think field recording as centered on living and sharing intense, singular experiences of the world. We expect submissions to focus on the study of the ethical, political and ecological potential inherent in artistic field recording practices, in connection with the thematic issues of the sound-experience, -locus and -technologies. In point of such concerns, this includes, but is not limited to, the following research areas:
– Status of field recording: possibly the greatest asset of field recording, cross-sector readiness is also its dark point. Unravelling its artistic from its extra-artistic portions in each of its productions, and bringing to light the manner in which both combine, will enable us to think the relationship of art to its own exterior.
– Artivism: field recording may be inserted into the field of so-called “artivist” practices, especially when it takes part in an ecological kind of activism. Following this path, we propose to regard listening as a kind of strategic means of redesigning our relationships to ourselves, to others, to places, to the world.
– Critical dimension: the soaring number of productions that avail themselves of field recording leads us to probe the concepts of art and the world conveyed by their contents and proceedings, and denounce its unscrupulous uses, deep down aiming at profits (using sound for business, career, instrumentalized, etc. purposes).
Jointly with the present call from the journal Filigrane. Musique, esthétique, sciences, société, including articles in French or English, there will be another call for a collective work in Spanish as part of an INNOVART research project conducted by researchers of Université Paris 8 (France), as well as Argentina’s Universidad del Nordeste and Universidad Nacional del Litoral.
Regarding Filigrane, the proposals for this review are expected to include a 6000-character abstract (1000 words) and a short bio-bibliographical notice, in French or English, that are to be sent BEFORE December 1st, 2020 to revue.filigrane2@gmail.com, alejandroreyna@live.com.ar and freychet.antoine@gmail.com. If their proposal is accepted, the authors undertake to complete and send their contributions BEFORE May 1st, 2021. The submitted papers will be considered by the journal’s scientific committee.
Antoine Freychet, Alejandro Reyna, Makis Solomos are in charge of this issue of the journal Filigrane. Musique, esthétique, sciences, société.