Sound art: space, time & Johannesburg
Date
2021
Authors
Engelbrecht, B.J.
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Abstract
This thesis begins with a chronological overview of sound and aurality. It focuses quite
strongly on music and on how elements key to the emergence of sound art are present
in the history of music. Some of the key themes are: space as a composed element in
music, the use of non-musical sound and sound recording and playback. This is
followed by a discussion of the emergence of sound art in the latter half of the 20th
century and a critique of the definition of sound art based on Tierry de Duve’s
aesthetics. Thereafter, the thesis provides a detailed look at the physical properties of
sound and the biological mechanisms of hearing. Here, particular attention is paid to
air and how a variety of physical and biological variables influence our perception of
sound. The underlying theoretical claim is that one of the functions of sound art is to
place the ordinariness of sound in context where a new awareness is created by ‘making
it strange’ – sound art consciously connects us to our perception of the environment,
time and particularly the ‘becoming’ of the present. Thus, the chapter that follows
attends specifically to notions of auditory experience as evoked within the context of
the soundscape of Johannesburg. Three variants of the soundscape of Johannesburg
mediate the discussion: the city, the residential areas (leafy suburb and township) and
the industrial zone. This is then followed by a series of case studies intended to suggest
new ways of studying the soundscape of Johannesburg. In the final chapter, I provide
an survey of sound art in Johannesburg and conclude by returning to the question of
sound art and the experience of space and time itself.
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021