“Reinventing Phonography: Three Case Studies of the Transduction (Online)” presented by Masuda, Matsutani, Akiyoshi, Jo and Yokokawa

Symposium:


Session Title:
  • Online Panel Content

Presentation Title:
  • Reinventing Phonography: Three Case Studies of the Transduction (Online)

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Abstract:

  • This panel is organized to present three case studies that attempt to reinvent the Phonography as a technology for writing sound. In doing so, we would like to examine the validity of applying the concept of transduction to media art in order to clarify the aesthetic possibility of the nonhuman from the perspective of media archeology.

    The first case is a historical survey which makes the original invention of the Phonograph by Thomas A. Edison reconsidered. Relying on the recent observations, we focus on the fact that this achievement of media history was a result of the materialistic understanding of the human organs. The second one presents an artistic practice of media archaeology inspired by the material process of the phonograph. In this work, Mary Had a Little Lamb (2019), Jo and DeMarinis (re-)produced the acoustic phenomenon by attuning the basic printing technology to electromagnetic principles. At last, Chromatophony (2019) is an attempt to redefine the phonograph through living materials, chromatophores of squids. In this work, we could find the phonography reinvented as a nonhuman transduction of audio-visual devices.

    Through these cases, it would be clear that the attunement plays an integral role in making transduction sensible, and that the reinvention of Phonography can be effective in demonstrating it in concrete ways. As a result, this panel will reveal that the material process of sound art would be a theoretical contribution for exploring the further possibilities of media art.

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