The importance of definitions

For this project, I hope to develop an ecology of ideas to navigate the haunting experience of a site, through the surrogate of sound. It is therefore essential that the words i use are precise and clear in definition both for the integrity of the research and for the ease of its reading, so that its methodology can be reproduced.

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I hope this page can be a resource for this project, to clarify terms in the reading of my thesis and a resource for myself to retain a diligent and concise prose.

Acoustics - The sound characteristics of a room. The science of reproduction, control, transmission, reception and effects of sound and the phenomenon of hearing.

Acousmatic - This refers to a sound with no identifiable cause. In my research it will also refer to sounds whose apparent cause is not perceived as the source for the sound.

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Affective Tonality -  Goodman describes the relational dimension of sound, as its affective tone – or the way in which a sound can modulate mood. This concept of dimensionality was important to my work as redefining the equation as a list of dimensions, however I chose to use the word relativity instead as this idea of tonality much too specific to sound experience and I wanted a more general term that would apply to human experience too.

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Aesthetic - A set of ideological principles, underlying the construction of a particular artistic movement.

Ambience - The residual ‘room sound’ of a listening environment.

Attenuation - The gradual loss of intensity through a medium. In acoustics, it is the ability of a structure to limit sound transmission.

Audiosocial Ecology - The discussion of how people can relate to each other and their surroundings through sound.

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Aural - Relating to the ear and the sense of hearing

Azimuth - The direction of a celestial body from an observer. Or in the case of my research, the perceived direction of an acousmatic sound.

Curation- The action or process of selecting, organising, presenting and composing of an experience of multiple art works.

D.A.W. - Digital Audio Workstation, this is the computer software in which sound can be edited, manipulated, organised and composed.

Demystification - American Art dealer Seth Sieglaub coins this term as the attempt to make visible the hidden structures of the art world. - especially in the 1960's, and it was during this time that curation turned towards a form of curatorial criticism, as oppose to these critiques being an autonomous object, thereby including the voice of the curator. In my own research I want to use this term 'demystification' as the process of revealing the ways in which the space is influenced by discursive ideologies.

Ecology - Etymologically speaking, eco- comes from the Greek for house and -logy comes from the Greek for ‘the study of-‘. In other words, the study of the house, but it is defined as the scientific study of the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

Flutter Echo - nAn echo that occurs when sound is reflected off of parallel surfaces but reaches the listener at different times. ( clapping your hands in a street and hearing the clap’s echoes delay between the varying distances of the surrounding architecture.)

Footfall - A form of impact noise created by walking, which causes structural vibrations.

Granular (Synthesis) - A Theorised by Iannis Xenakis, this is an alternative model of sound as made up of hundreds of minuscule sound quanta or corpuscles, resembling an energy more than a wave. Granular synthesis is a method of microsampling which allows the artificial interaction of sounds as an energy.

Hauntology - An alternate model of time to the linear one we assume, where time is crumpled and spectres of our past can live through the present and futures of the haunted site. In other words how the metaphorical ghosts of 'lost futures'  haunt the present, asking people to consider the influence of alternative futures and acknowledge that this "haunting" (or the study of the non-existent) has real effects.

Ideologies - A system of beliefs and ideals, especially ones which contribute to form the basis of political theories.

Impact Noise - Sound created when two objects come in contact, this may cause structural vibrations which can travel throughout an architectures walls, ceilings, windows etc.

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Indexical - A word or phrase whose meaning os dependent on its context. In my thesis I use this word to describe works of art whose installed site alters the meaning of the work, this is especially true of site-specific works.

Infrasound - The dimension of frequencies just below the human periphery. Any sound with a frequency lower than 20 Hz.

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Incongruous - Not in Harmony with its surroundings or enclosing structural systems. I will use this phrase to describe the aspect of unpredictability of sounds in my research.

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Modulation - The exertion of a modifying or controlling influence on something. In my research it will define the way that an experience is modified by artificial or ideological factors.

Music -  An organised structure of sounds within rhythm and time, and not space. – in other words, the definition that Neuhaus uses for Sound installation, this definition feels appropriate as it encompasses even experimental forms of music.

Noise - Noise is defined as unwanted sounds. In engineering, noise is characterised as meaningless signals compared to the meaningful signals of sound. Russolo argues that noise was invented by man, with the advent of machinery, where it became unwanted as it polluted the world with an unintended consequence of energy and power. I want to argue that noise is filled with as much meaning and information as any other more ‘pleasant’ it intended sound, that it assists to establish a generative and dynamic soundscape. In my research I will refer to noise as the consequent frequencies of independent actions, as oppose to musical sounds created for sonorous expression. In other words, Noise is information-sound that contributes to the generative soundscape around us.

Nostalgia - An uncanny spectre which reveals the emphasised quality of similarity between two objects or events.

Ocularcentrism - The idea that our culture has been constructed with a centricity around the sense of vision. Where the dominance of vision in our hierarchy of senses is so great that it our sensory experience is being flattened to cater solely for vision.

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Ontology - A set of concepts or categories in a subject area or domain that shows their properties and the relations between them. Also the branch of philosophy that deals with existence, being, reality and how objects can be classified and understood.

Place - A specific area within space that is artificially set apart  with associated significance, determined either by walls and structures, or by general notions of boundaries and borders.

Phantom - The presence of dead figures for the purpose of trans-generational communication. The phantom embodies the legacy and personhood of the deceased, often haunting through spaces through association and their framework which still stand.

Phenomenology - The philosophical study of structures of experience and consciousness, and the study of how things exist/appear in our experience of them.

Psychogenic - Of psychological origin or importance as oppose to an origin within the physical dimension.

Relationality - This was the initial title for what is now named Relativity in my Thesis. The term Relationality was inspired by the audiosocial investigations of Brandon Labelle, who writes that sound is "immediately and unavoidably relational".

Relativity - This is the affective dimension of sound (and experience) its the social element which makes both art and the art experience meaningful to the individual. Early in my project I called this dimension 'relationality' as I wanted a word that meant in relation to something physical but in a personal manner. However I have found that the definition of relativity suits: 'The dependence of various physical phenomena on relative motion of the observer and the observed objects, especially regarding the nature and behaviour of light, space, time, and gravity.' I like this definition as it encapsulates the idea of the subjective experience of the objective, but also because it includes the importance of motion. Suggesting that the experience of something physical (such as art) is affected by the spectator's navigation through the space around it, emphasising the importance of context and disillusion of audience passivity.

Reverberation (Reverb) - The persistence of a sound beyond the action of its creation, created by sounds reflect off of surfaces creating a lingering echo.

Sample - A portion of a sound recording, usually used in sampling processes.

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Seance - The means of conversing with spirits specifically.

Sonar - A method of detecting, locating and navigating unseen structures, through the measured reflections from acoustic interaction.

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Sonic - Denoting, relating to, or of the nature of sound or sound waves.

Sound Pressure - The pressure created in a space in the presence of sound.

Soundscape - The surrounding acoustic environment, as perceived by humans in context.

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Spectre - The spirits of abstract ideas, haunting the recurrent concepts of conversations. A deconstructive figure which represents a dualism. 

Silence - The impossible, yet idealised complete absence of sound.

Site - Defined as a place upon/within which a monument will be constructed. In Art the 'site' refers to a specific place for which an artwork is created and intended to exhibit in.

Sound Art - The consumed term which attempted to create and classify works with sonic elements.

Sound Installation - A proposed term which attempts to define a dialogue of sound-based artworks, acknowledging sound's innate spatial nature.

Space - The all-encompassing umbrella for dimensional navigation. ( Space is the limitless void in which all things exist).
 

Spectral - Defined as ghost-like or incorporeal, it is also used in sound design as referring to the graphic representation of amplitude against frequency and time of a sound.

Ultrasound - The dimension of frequencies just above the human periphery. Any sound with a frequency greater than 20 KHz.

Unsound - The dimension of frequencies just outside of the human periphery.

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Volume - The physicality of the space that fills an architectural

space.

White Cube - The most common aesthetic of curation for contemporary art exhibitions. It consists of white matte painted walls in rooms of geometric architecture, with no windows, a darker toned 'stripped' floor and ceiling and artificial bright white lights. This curational aesthetic was named by critic Brian O'Doherty and was formulated by then Director of MoMA Alfred H Barr Jr.

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White Noise - Noise containing many frequencies of equal intensity, often used for noise-cancellation technologies.
 

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