Open AccessBeyond Representation and Signification: Toward a Sonic Materialism
Author(s) -
Christoph Cox
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of visual culture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.157
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1741-2994
pISSN - 1470-4129
DOI - 10.1177/1470412911402880
Subject(s) - materialism , representation (politics) , the arts , sound (geography) , epistemology , grasp , aesthetics , sound art , sociology , art , philosophy , visual arts , computer science , acoustics , law , physics , politics , political science , programming language
Why does sound art remain so profoundly undertheorized, and why has it failed to generate a rich and compelling critical literature? It is because the prevailing theoretical models are inadequate to it. Developed to account for the textual and the visual, they fail to capture the nature of the sonic. In this article, the author proposes an alternative theoretical framework, a materialist account able to grasp the nature of sound and to enable analysis of the sonic arts. He suggests, moreover, that this theoretical account can provide a model for rethinking the arts in general and for avoiding the pitfalls encountered in theories of representation and signification.