Hi folks,
I feel this thread touches upon a really important issue. In deciding
appropriate technological approaches, we need to first be clear about why we're
listening.
It occurs to me that using multiple mic sources is actually an attempt to
synthesize a soundscape that accords more to our visual sense than our auditory
one. We are trying to hear the landscape the same way we see it - separating it
into discreet objects and recombining. But listening is not seeing. Expansive
listening gives us holistic information about what is around us, and our
relationship to it. And this is referenced upon the human-scale listening
experience of two ears hanging in the breeze.
For me; I want to reawaken my listening from its post-industrial torpor, and
enrich my relationship with the world around me. I utilise audio technology,
taking that human-scale listening as my reference point.
I could imagine an artistic agenda in exploring 'alternate sensory viewpoints'
though mixing multiple sources, but I can't help feeling that there is nothing
culturally radical in this, just an extension of our human fascination with how
much we can abstract and manipulate nature. Legerdemain. How far can we go?
Personally, I'm with you on this one Geoff :) Single point stereo; simple
technology, coherent information, fieldcraft, personal presence in the
landscape, deep listening (not to mention less time farting around in the
studio afterwards!).
To me, the important issue is not what I can DO with audio technology, but how
it can help me BE in the world.
Cheers,
Andrew
------------------------------------
Listening Earth
Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak
http://www.listeningearth.com
P.O. Box 188
Castlemaine
Victoria 3450
Australia
tel: +61 3 5476 2609
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