Sonic Thinking

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by Bernd Herzogenrath


  This simple realization was the central idea for this experiment—and I started right away: I assigned the alphabetical letter A to the musical note A1 on the keyboard, then the letter B to the subsequent note B1, et cetera. After seven pairs of letters and notes I continued this sequence in the next higher octave, by assigning the letter H to the note A2, the letter I to the note B2, and so on, working my way through the alphabet.

  Trying to stay within the confines and conventions of Western music, I had to make some deliberate decisions and concessions when devising this framework for my project. For instance, this modus operandi would ignore all the black keys on the keyboard in order to stay in the C major scale. I also decided to assign the spaces between words and sentences to musical rests: 16th rests between words, eighth rests after complete sentences and quarter rests after complete paragraphs. For simplicity’s sake, I ignored capital letters and punctuation symbols, except for commata and full stops, which are again assigned to musical rests. I experimented with the idea of inserting various percussive elements to represent the punctuation, but I found that this would divert the attention away from the musical notes.2

  Since I accomplished this process with the help of a sequencer program, I had the possibility to assign virtually any sound a synthesizer or sampler could produce, because technically speaking, up to that point I was just programming MIDI-data. For abstraction’s sake, I could have used simple, rather neutral sounding sinewaves. Or pitched audio-samples of singing birds, or barking dogs for that matter. But since I was already working with a keyboard (and the piano roll in my sequencer program), I decided to stay true to the keyboard analogy and use the sounds of a sampled grand piano.

  Another purely aesthetic decision was to add a little touch of reverb to the sound of the sampled piano, to make it less dry sounding. In retrospect this seems all the more fitting, since this project essentially deals with reflection.

  So when placing these notes in my sequencer, I almost felt like a musical typesetter, who coordinates the lead types of every letter to form words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and eventually whole books. Ironically, this profession has become virtually obsolete since computer technology took over in printing shops, some 30 or 40 years ago. And here I was, sitting in front of a computer, setting types. However, my typesetting environment looked more like Figure v.2.

  This mode of working turned out to be a very painstaking, but also almost meditative activity. It demanded a constant recursion to the text: I started refining expressions, weighing words, rethinking every sentence, every letter. It took time, but it also gave me time—time to think: I was reminded of the speech Eurythmy dancing in Waldorf schools, which aims to express the letters and sounds of poetry via elegant gestures and movements.

  Also the printing telegraph came to mind, a mid-nineteenth century communication device with a strangely familiar interface (Figure v.3).

  On a similar note, I found that this project bears a certain resemblance to some positions of conceptual art in the 1960s. Think, for instance, of Joseph Kosuth’s 1965 artwork “One and three chairs” which shows a chair, next to a photograph of it, next to the printed encyclopedia entry of the term “Chair”. The work of art here is dematerialized: it is NOT constituted by the chair or this combination of objects. They just describe the actual work: the art itself is the concept of the chair, the idea, the ephemeral thought (cf. Lippard 1973).

  Figure iv.2

  Figure iv.3

  Consequently, this project manifests itself in various self-reflexive forms: there is the print-out of my script right here, you hear me speaking it out, I also rendered the notation sheets for it, of which you can see the first one right here (Figure v.4).

  Then there is the waveform display of the rendered audio (Figure v.5) and finally we will listen to the audio version itself.

  Unfortunately, the completed composition of my talk turned out to be way longer than I expected it to be, when using 16th note values and rendering at a reasonable speed of 100 beats per minute. Playing it back faster would blur and obliterate sonic detail that I consider essential to the experience. This is why we will only be able to listen to selected excerpts of it. However, for those interested, I will upload an mp3-file of the full composition to our conference-website.3

  Figure iv.4

  Figure iv.5

  So I would like to invite you to take a few minutes to listen to the actual sound of the text I just presented to you. It will convert thought—via the detour of writing and retyping—again to its ephemeral form, not unlike speech, but presenting a different, maybe somewhat idiosyncratic, but by no means inconsistent, rendition of it. Maybe this will bore you, maybe you will be amused, maybe this will shed a new light on things. I don’t know yet, it’s an experiment and it’s a premiere. I just hope there are no typos in it. Ladies and gentlemen: the Sonotypes.

  Notes

  1During the 1920s, the Dada-artist Raoul Hausmann further developed the idea of the Optophone and turned it into a mechanical art object, which could simultaneously convert light into sound, and vice-versa.

  2Endnotes, however, are played back at double the speed and only 75% of the volume.

  3See and hear: https://soundcloud.com/sscherer/sonotypes.

  Work cited

  Lippard, L. (1973), Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Index

  Aboulafia, Abraham here, here

  abstraction here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  acoustic ecology here, here, here, here, here, here

  Adams, John Luther here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Anahata Nada here

  anthropic subversion here, here, here, here

  anthropocene (post-anthropocene) here, here

  apparatus of capture here, here, here

  ars sermonis here

  artistic research here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  aural architecture here, here

  autoactive systems here, here

  autobiographical here, here, here, here, here, here

  Bacon, Francis here, here, here, here

  Barthes, Roland here, here, here, here

  bats here, here

  binary here, here, here, here, here, here

  Blesser, Barry here, here

  body here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Cage, John here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  cardiac system here, here

  chimes here

  chóra here, here

  churches here, here

  Cicero, Marcus Tullius here

  Clicks & Cuts here

  code here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  conversation here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  DeLanda, Manuel here

  Deleuze, Gilles here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Deleuze, Gilles & Félix Guattari here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  becoming here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  milieu here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  style here, here, here, here, here

  difference here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  digital here, here, here, here, h
ere, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  discreteness here, here

  dispositive here, here

  Dunn, David here, here, here, here, here

  echoes here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  environment here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  epistemology here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  ermida here, here

  Eshun, Kodwo here, here

  event here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  faciality here

  felt sense here, here

  field recording here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  formative listening here, here

  future of music here, here, here

  Gendlin, Eugene T. here, here, here

  generative here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  genius loci here, here, here, here, here

  Goebbels, Heiner

  Berlin Q-Damm 12.4.81 here

  Max Black here, here

  Stifters Dinge here, here, here

  Golem here, here, here

  Heidegger, Martin here, here, here, here

  Hölderlin, Friedrich here, here, here

  human here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  hyperlinear here, here, here

  hyperstition here

  information here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  in|human here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  inhuman (sound) here, here, here, here, here, here

  insects here, here, here, here, here

  intertextuality here, here, here

  Italy here, here, here, here

  Jackson, Michael here

  keyboard here, here, here

  Kircher, Athanasius here

  Kosuth, Joseph here

  Kubick, Chris and Anne Walsh here

  Laruelle, François here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  layer here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  logos here, here

  Lyotard, Jean-François here, here

  Marsyas here

  materiality here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  McLuhan, Herbert Marshall here, here, here, here

  media archaeology here, here, here

  mediation here, here, here, here, here

  memory here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Messiaen, Olivier here, here, here, here

  meter here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  MIDI here

  mind-body dichotomy here

  multistability here

  nano-fascism here

  Nietzsche, Friedrich here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  nodar here

  noise here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  non-music here, here, here, here, here, here

  non-philosophy here, here, here, here, here, here

  notation here, here, here, here, here

  O’Callaghan, Casey here, here, here

  Optophone here, here

  organised sound here, here, here, here, here

  ophtalmocentrism here

  Orpheus here

  Parry, Richard Reed here, here, here, here

  Paiva River here, here, here

  performativity/performative here, here, here, here, here, here

  periphery here, here

  perspective here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  phenomenology here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Plato here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  process philosophy here

  refrain here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  remix here, here, here, here

  resonance here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  respiratory system here

  rhythmight here, here, here

  river here, here, here, here, here, here

  Robbe-Grillet, Alain here, here

  Roxette here, here

  sampling here, here, here, here

  Schaeffer, Pierre here, here, here, here

  Schafer, R. Murray here, here, here, here

  Schopenhauer, Arthur here, here, here, here, here

  Schumann, Robert here, here, here

  silence here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  sonic fiction here, here

  sonification here, here

  sonority here, here, here, here, here

  sound art here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  sound propagation here, here, here, here, here, here

  soundscape here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  sound source here, here, here, here, here

  sound thinking here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  sound without organs (SWO) here, here, here, here

  speculative realism here

  strata here, here, here, here, here

  Summer, Donna here

  syzygy of permanence and fluency here, here

  techno here, here, here, here

  technology here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  temporality here, here, here, here, here, here

  territory here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  The Black Soft here, here, here, here, here

  the one here, here, here

  the real here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  The Thing (John Carpenter) here

  thinking-through-making here

  thinking-through-media here, here, here

  Thoreau, Henry David here, here

  thought here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  time-consciousness here, here, here, here

  timeline here, here, here, here

  tinnitus here, here

  tone color here

  transformation here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  transition here, here, here, here, here

  transposition here, here, here, here, here, here

  typesetting here

  vibration here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  vibrational ontologies here, here, here

  walking here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  weather here, here, here, here

  Whitehead, Alfred N. here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

  Bloomsbury Academic

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  First published 2017

  © Bernd Herzogenrath, 2017

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

  No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.

  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Herzogenrath, Bernd, 1964– author.Title: Sonic thinking : a media philosophical approach / Bernd Herzogenrath.Description: New York, NY, USA : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc, [2017] | Series: Thinking media | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016034486 (print) | LCCN 2016048410 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501327209 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501327179 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781501327186 (ePUB)

  Subjects: LCSH: Sound (Philosophy) | Thought and thinking. | Mass media.

  Classification: LCC B105.S59 H47 2017 (print) | LCC B105.S59 (ebook) | DDC 10–dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016034486

  ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-2720-9

  ePub: 978-1-5013-2718-6

 

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