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Towards a Rewilding of the Ear

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2017

André G. Pinto
André G. Pinto*
Affiliation:
Rua Maria Andrade, 42, 4ºEsq, 1170–220 Lisboa, Portugal
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this article I outline the idea of an empirical/experiential reconnection to the natural non-human world through the practice of deep listening. I believe that the aesthetic experience is central to a more ecological positioning of the human being on earth and that aesthetic experience should involve a ‘rewilding of the ear’. To discuss this concept, I build an argument from Edgard Varèse’s music as ‘organised sound’ and approach it from a perceptual point of view. This leads to the discussion of other concepts, such as David Dunn’s ‘grief of incommunicability’ (Dunn 1997) and Jean-François Augoyard and Henry Torgue’s ‘sharawadgi effect’ (Bick 2008). Further to this I discuss parallels between Truax’s continuum (Speech–Music–Soundscape) and Peirce’s semiotic system. Taking points from these theories, we can discuss the possibility of the re-tuning of our ears to the wider sound palette of the world. I consider George Monbiot’s concepts of ‘rewilding’ and ‘rewilding of the human life’ (Monbiot 2014), in order to create a parallel to our relationship with the soundscape.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 22 , Special Issue 1: Context-based Composition , April 2017 , pp. 51 - 60
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

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