Shifting Paradigms: Towards an Auditory Culture

Symposium:

• ISEA2012: 18th International Symposium on Electronic Art
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• Shifting Paradigms: Towards an Auditory Culture

• Leah Barclay

Venue(s):

• Hotel Andaluz

• The global ecological crisis has become a catalyst for interdisciplinary collaborations at a time when a shift in thinking is urgently required. World leaders are now looking towards the validity and possibilities of creative methodologies as tools for change. This presents both a challenge and an unprecedented opportunity for creative practitioners to gain a critical understanding of the situation and devise new processes for a sustainable future. This paper explores the role of auditory culture in a sustainable future and introduces the Sonic Ecologies Framework, a multi-platform methodology proposed to initiate cultural change through sound. The core of this methodology pivots on a site-specific creative project embedded in a multi-layered community cultural engagement process developed in response to a specific environment. This evolving model is implemented by the artist, acting as an agent of change spiraling between contextualized theory and practice. This research introduces the five stages of the model with examples from projects recently implemented in Australia.

  Intro
  In John Cage’s pivotal 1937 talk, The Future of Music: Credo, he said, “I believe that the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard” . In 2012, the centennial of John Cage, his visionary genius is clearly evident with a musical world of infinite possibilities aided by technology. The dramatic advancement of technology has truly cultivated a paradigm shift in how artists interact in both physical and virtual worlds. These changes have evolved and expanded our tools of expression but most importantly they have opened the ability to communicate at a higher level in an interdisciplinary context. In a recent addition of Musicworks, Joel Chadabe stated that the current artistic practices of electro-acoustic composers are rooted in the idea that new technologies, unlike traditional musical instruments, can produce sounds used to communicate core messages, including information about the state of our environment. He claims that we are all participating in the emergence of a new type of music accessible to anyone, which can be used to communicate ideas that relate more closely to life than those communicated through traditional musical forms. He – The Wilderness at Home

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Category:

• Paper