Papers in Refereed Journals by Vadim Keylin
Sound Studies, 2020
The article makes a case for a pragmatist approach to sound studies. My starting point is the ost... more The article makes a case for a pragmatist approach to sound studies. My starting point is the ostensible lack of language for analysing the agentic, creative and expressive aspects of sound outside of domains of speech and music. At the same time, recent aesthetic and technological developments have brought about a plethora of sound practices that defy the apparatuses of musicology and linguistic as much as they do the listening-centred perspectives of sound studies. Discussing six examples of such practices taken from interactive sound art and participatory online cultures, I sketch out possible directions for a sonic pragmatism. In the first part, I put forward three possible premises for such a theory: John Dewey’s aesthetics, G.H. Mead’s ontology of acts, and actor-network theory. In the second part, I discuss three potential categories for the analysis of sound acts – affordance, perspective, and gesture – emphasising, respectively, their material, social, and pragmatic aspects. I argue that a pragmatist epistemology can offer substantial insights into both philosophical and cultural aspects of contemporary soundmaking, suspending the familiar dichotomies of perception and production, subject and object, human and nonhuman.
Organised Sound, 2020
This article makes an argument for the postcritical treatment of the politics of sound art. Count... more This article makes an argument for the postcritical treatment of the politics of sound art. Counterpointing an autoethnographic analysis of Kristina Kubisch’s Electrical Walks with Seth Kim-Cohen’s critical reading of the same work, I show how a critical position detached from the lived experience leaves behind a wealth of meanings necessary to understand the political potential of sound art. This gap, I argue, necessitates a ‘radical empiricist’ approach shifting the focus from the artistic intent to the lived experiences of the audience and the effects sound art may have on their lives. Drawing on autoethnographic and ethnographic accounts of Kaffe Matthews’s sonic bike rides and Benoît Maubrey Speaker Sculptures, as well as Rita Felski’s project of postcritical reading, I develop a theoretical framework for the politics of sound art based around the concept of affordance. The term ‘affordance’ in this context refers to the possibilities of political meaning or political action an artwork offers to the participants without imposing a particular interpretation on them. I finish by discussing three aspects of political affordances in sound art: meaning-making, uses of sound art and access to participation.
SoundEffects, 2020
Audience participation is a prominent thread running through much of sound art practice, yet it r... more Audience participation is a prominent thread running through much of sound art practice, yet it remains largely absent from the sound art scholarship. In this article, I argue that the most widespread methodologies employed in sound art research – roughly split into the phenomenological branch and the object-oriented branch – are ill equipped to tackle the questions of sociality and participation. Instead, I offer a framework for the study of participation in sound art – and, more broadly, for sound aesthetics in general – rooted in the pragmatist tradition. My starting point is John Dewey’s conceptualization of an artwork as an aesthetic experience developing in cycles of doing and undergoing – a structure, he claims, present in both the creative process and the reception of artworks, putting them on equal footing. I then expand this notion by turning to the contemporary pragmatist trends in creativity studies, ANT and affordance theory, introducing the concepts of we-creativity, mediation and affordance. The second half of the article focuses specifically on affordance – a relationship between a sound artwork and its audience delimiting and facilitating the possibilities for participation. I discuss the low-level affordances (facilitating elementary action) for creative listening and soundmaking and high-level affordances (facilitating complex behaviors) for creativity, experimentation and connectivity. I conclude that the pragmatist framework allows to go beyond the subject- or object-centeredness of phenomenological or object-oriented methodologies, bringing to the foreground the relational and social character of sound art.
The paper explores the practice of Aeolian sound sculpture from three main angles: musical, envir... more The paper explores the practice of Aeolian sound sculpture from three main angles: musical, environmental and architectural. As musical pieces, such works can be regarded as a kind of aleatory practice that allows the composer to completely surrender artistic control, making the listener the one to assemble the composition. As environmental artworks, Aeolian sculptures make the traditionally invisible natural processes perceivable, making the audience aware of the complex structure of environment. Finally, as tools of urban design they re-infuse the public space with meaning, allowing the community to constitute itself as such.
Full text: http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/spazidellamusica/article/view/1358/pdf
Organised Sound issue 20/2, Aug 2015
This article aims to sketch a theory of sound sculpture, one that would explain the variety of fo... more This article aims to sketch a theory of sound sculpture, one that would explain the variety of forms this artistic practice might take on and define it in relation to other art forms. My hypothesis is that in order to do this we must focus on the traits of sound sculpture connecting it to music rather than on those separating the two. A useful instrument to analyse this connection is Harry Partch’s concept of corporeal music. In contrast to Western classical music, which he viewed as abstract and devoid of life, Partch envisioned a music that would emphasise the physicality of sound-making and engage the listener on a more visceral level. Investigating a number of works from all parts of the sound sculpture spectrum, I argue that all the various practices that comprise the art form present the core traits of Partch’s musical ideal (physicality of music, audience engagement, and unity of the sonic and the visual) to a substantial extent. Analysing sound sculpture in light of its connection to music brings to the fore a number of musical issues for which this new art form provides a new perspective. Among these are the agency of the composer and the listener, the function and nature of a score, as well as the role of technology in music-making. These issues, along with the general idea of corporeality of music, compose a discourse that transcends the boundaries of different subgenres of sound sculpture, allowing for theorisation of the art form as a whole.
For full text see my webpage.
The article investigates sound sculptures of the German artist Peter Vogel, who uses electric cir... more The article investigates sound sculptures of the German artist Peter Vogel, who uses electric circuits as a sound-producing mechanism, which at the same time also serves as a sculptural form. As a result of such unity of form and function, Vogel's sound sculptures function as both musical instruments and graphic scores. Two main functions of a graphic score—the aesthetic and instructive ones—also become inseparable. Interacting with such an instrument-score the viewer becomes a performer and a listener.
Full text can also be found at http://en.dada-avis.net/academic/
Opera Musicologica № 2(20), Oct 2014
В статье рассматривается творчество немецкого художника Петера Фогеля. В своих звуковых скульпту... more В статье рассматривается творчество немецкого художника Петера Фогеля. В своих звуковых скульптурах Фогель использует электросхемы и в качестве источника звука, и как пластический и визуальный компонент. В результате такого слияния формы и функции звуковая скульптура объединяет в себе и музыкальный инструмент, и графическую нотацию. Две основные функции графической нотации—эстетическая и инструктивная—также становятся неотделимы друг от друга. Взаимодействуя с таким инструментом-партитурой, зритель становится также исполнителем и слушателем музыки.
Полный текст доступен по адресу: http://ru.dada-avis.net/academic/
Conference Presentations by Vadim Keylin
Invisible Places: Sound, Urbanism and Sense of Place, Proceedings, 2018
Speaker Sculptures is a series of works by Benoît Maubrey, created in 1983–2015. All of them are ... more Speaker Sculptures is a series of works by Benoît Maubrey, created in 1983–2015. All of them are large-scale architecture-like constructions (often modeled after existing historical buildings or building types) built of recycled loudspeakers. The public could connect to the work by calling a designated number, or using Bluetooth or WiFi technologies, and express themselves freely through the sculpture. In my paper, I investigate the strategies of audience engagement the Maubrey employs and their applicability to the acoustic design of urban spaces. Through their numerous loudspeakers, Speaker Sculptures connect the public space to the electronic media, subverting their antagonism and creating a single space of social interactions. This offers a possibility of political presence in public space to those, who are unable to do so in person due to physical or mental disabilities, or other personal circumstances.
Современные проблемы искусствознания: взгляд молодых: Сборник статей по материалам конференции аспирантов и соискателей Государственного института искусствознания. ред.-сост. Н. Данченкова. М: ГИИ, 2016
В докладе рассматривается творчество художников, работающих на пересечении двух направлений совре... more В докладе рассматривается творчество художников, работающих на пересечении двух направлений современного медиа-искусства: звуковой скульптуры и опытов «искусственной жизни». Моделью для кинетических скульптур швецарца Zimoun служат колонии простейших или насекомых. Сложенные из типичных индустриальных материалов: картонных коробок, моторов, полиэтилена, эти инсталляции-муравейники производят сложную, непредсказуемую звуковую фактуру в силу мелких несовершенств-мутаций составляющих частей. В работах Дмитрия Морозова напротив звук является не результатом движения, но его субститутом, единственным свидетельством сложной внутренней жизни внешне статичных скульптур. Внешне напоминающие гигантских инопланетных моллюсков объекты Дмитрия Каварги обладают чертой более высокой ступени эволюции — способностью к высшей нервной деятельности, хотя и реализуемой с помощью зрителя. Биометрические датчики регистрируют мозговую активность зрителя, на основании этих данных скульптура генерирует персонализированный музыкальный трек — своего рода вознаграждение за отданный ресурс. Эти отношения можно назвать симбиотическими.
Взаимодействие двух жанров создает новые выразительные возможности для каждого из них. Акустический элемент делает «искусственные организмы» более жизнеподобными, дает им способность к самовыражению через голос. В то же время для звуковой скульптуры биоморфная модель открывает новый способ взаимосвязи пластического и акустического начал: через подражание живым организмам, чьи внешность и голос являются проявлениями единого генетического кода.
Public space has always played a prominent role in sound art – both as a venue and as an object o... more Public space has always played a prominent role in sound art – both as a venue and as an object of artistic exploration. From soundscape composition to Aeolian art to large-scale outdoor installations, sound artists have extensively explored the issues of spatial identity, urban ecology and social engagement. It is especially true for sound sculpture, the situating of which in a public space gives way to a complex interplay between the sounds produced by the work and the ones already existing in the environment. This interplay, however, is underpinned by social relationships. On the one hand, sound sculpture is an essentially participatory art form, as it invites its audience to co-author what they hear and shapes them into an artist collective. On the other hand, the majority of sounds, existing in urban space, are also products of social relationships, as is the space itself, according to Henri Lefebvre. The participatory nature of urban sound sculpture allows for a reading of ist interactions with the site through the lens of Nicolas Bourriaud’s relational aesthetics.
The basis of my presentation is the study of four sound artists and groups, whose work engages with the public space. The artistic collective O+A creates acoustic interventions into inhospitable urban soundscapes, using resonant bodies and electronic processing as filters that refine the place, transforming its noises into harmonies. Benoit Maubrey’s monumental speaker- sculptures extend the public space into the media sphere, subverting the antagonism between the two. With their sonic bikes, artists and engineers of the Bicrophonic Research Institute reinvent the soundscapes of city streets, shifting the perspective from muting or musicalizing traffic noise to making traffic itself musical. Jodi Roses’s work is concerned with reframing the cable bridges, singing in the wind, as found sound sculptures through site-specific performance and field recording. These four case studies show the sound sculpture’s unique ability to uncover the connections and intersections: of the natural and the urban, the found and the artistic, the community and the environments. Soliciting audience participation, both witting (through engaging its audience in sound-making) and unwitting (through appropriating the community-produced urban sounds) sound sculpture reconfigures the public space and can serve as an instrument for enhancing urban living conditions.
Fascination with music-making technology has always lain at the heart of sound sculpture. The ear... more Fascination with music-making technology has always lain at the heart of sound sculpture. The earliest examples of the art form, sculptures of Baschet brothers, Harry Bertoia and others were musical instruments – essentially mechanical devices – reimagined as works of art. In my paper I discuss the work of artists like Benoit Maubrey, Alyce Santoro or Stephen Cornford, who repurpose objects like tape cassettes and recorders, vinyl records and player, loudspeakers etc. as building blocks for their sound sculptures. Unlike musical instruments such devices do not produce music, but reproduce it, which warrants a paradoxical duality of a music recording. On the one hand the technology has disengaged music from its physical source, in a sense – disembodied it. But at the same time it has served the commodification of music, turning it into mass-produced objects that can be bought and owned. Recontextualizing consumer audio electronics as sculptural objects the artists reunite the disembodied music with its new commoditized body. The unity of the sculptural and the musical, which is the defining trait of sound sculpture, brings to the fore the physicality of recorded music. This allows the artists explore the numerous ways interaction with audio players and similar devices is embedded into out listening experiences, be it the nostalgia associated with obsolete technologies, the audiophile myth of the perfect sound, the intimacy of headphones or many others.
When Harry Partch said that his corporeal music, as opposed to abstract music of Western classica... more When Harry Partch said that his corporeal music, as opposed to abstract music of Western classical tradition, should engage the listener, he still meant that the listener should sit and listen quietly, even if not as reverently as at a classical concert. John Cage’s quest for the liberation of sound, as Richard Taruskin noted, took away even more agency from the performer and the listener. In the post-1945 Western art music the age-old hierarchy between composers, performers and listeners remained unwavering. But at the same historic time the pioneers of sound sculpture Bernard and François Baschet proclaimed audience participation in music-making a core component of their art. Throughout the years the brothers took this idea further. First, they transformed their sculptures into construction sets for the audience, then took to battle social exclusion with their art, working with underprivileged and disabled teens. This turn can be seen as symbolic, as sound sculpture itself has remained something of a musical outlier, existing on the fringes of music and contemporary art.
The emphasis on the audience’s agency allows to draw an analogy between Baschets’ practice of sound sculpture and Joseph Beuys’s idea of social sculpture, an instrument of artistic liberation. The different subgenres of sound sculpture that developed in recent decades have explored various ways of engaging and empowering the listener as an active participant of the music-making process, therefore removing the elitist barrier of professionalization. This paper discusses the ways in which sound sculpture, as an interactive and participatory art practice, reshapes the power relations, involved in music-making.
Video of Lectures by Vadim Keylin
Взаимоотношения звука и пространства традиционно считаются одним из краеугольных камней теории са... more Взаимоотношения звука и пространства традиционно считаются одним из краеугольных камней теории саунд-арта. В практиках звукового искусства – саундскейпе, звуковой скульптуре и инсталляции – вопросы пространственной идентичности, экологической и социальной организации пространства получают новое прочтение через призму слухового опыта. В то же время, эту диалектику можно – и нужно – расширить, добавив в нее третий элемент – сообщества. С одной стороны, само пространство, с которым взаимодействует произведение саунд-арта, равно как и наполняющие его звуки, является продуктом социальных отношений. С другой стороны, звуковое искусство принципиально предполагает ту или иную степень участия публики в формировании слышимого. В то же время, произведение саунд-арта подчиняет окружающее пространство определенной художественной логике, и тем самым влияет на характер взаимодействия с ним сообщества.
Предметом лекции являются звуковые скульптуры и инсталляции в публичном пространстве. В отличие от белого куба галереи или безлюдных природных ландшафтов, подобный контекст позволяет трехсторонним взаимоотношениям звука, пространства и сообществ раскрыться наиболее полно. Анализ этих взаимоотношений вскрывает сложную сеть диалектик, реализующихся в произведении звукового паблик-арта: между найденным и созданным, намеренным и ненамеренным, природным и общественным.
Презентация к лекции: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxT28ypRkh8zZzdEQ280WUNKbkU/view
Звуковую скульптуру можно назвать «оборотной стороной» музыки: это искусство, работающее с матери... more Звуковую скульптуру можно назвать «оборотной стороной» музыки: это искусство, работающее с материальной, а не символической стороной акустического опыта. При этом вещественность звука может реализовываться как одно из трех единств: звука и его источника (классические скульптуры-инструменты братьев Баше и Харри Бертойи), звука и его носителя (медиа-скульптуры Стивена Корнфорда и Бенуа Мобри) или звука и тела слушающего (скульптуры «из звука» Бернхарда Ляйтнера и Майкла Брюстера). Акцент на материальных аспектах художественно организованного звука позволяет проанализировать произведения звуковой скульптуры с позиций теории воплощенного познания, утверждающей первостепенное значение телесного опыта в формировании структур сознания. Вскрывая механизмы, стоящие за формированием музыкального содержания, такой анализ, в свою очередь, помогает лучше понять структуру музыкального опыта как такового.
Видеозапись доклада: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb9Y_MJzu84
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Papers in Refereed Journals by Vadim Keylin
Full text: http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/spazidellamusica/article/view/1358/pdf
For full text see my webpage.
Full text can also be found at http://en.dada-avis.net/academic/
Полный текст доступен по адресу: http://ru.dada-avis.net/academic/
Conference Presentations by Vadim Keylin
Взаимодействие двух жанров создает новые выразительные возможности для каждого из них. Акустический элемент делает «искусственные организмы» более жизнеподобными, дает им способность к самовыражению через голос. В то же время для звуковой скульптуры биоморфная модель открывает новый способ взаимосвязи пластического и акустического начал: через подражание живым организмам, чьи внешность и голос являются проявлениями единого генетического кода.
The basis of my presentation is the study of four sound artists and groups, whose work engages with the public space. The artistic collective O+A creates acoustic interventions into inhospitable urban soundscapes, using resonant bodies and electronic processing as filters that refine the place, transforming its noises into harmonies. Benoit Maubrey’s monumental speaker- sculptures extend the public space into the media sphere, subverting the antagonism between the two. With their sonic bikes, artists and engineers of the Bicrophonic Research Institute reinvent the soundscapes of city streets, shifting the perspective from muting or musicalizing traffic noise to making traffic itself musical. Jodi Roses’s work is concerned with reframing the cable bridges, singing in the wind, as found sound sculptures through site-specific performance and field recording. These four case studies show the sound sculpture’s unique ability to uncover the connections and intersections: of the natural and the urban, the found and the artistic, the community and the environments. Soliciting audience participation, both witting (through engaging its audience in sound-making) and unwitting (through appropriating the community-produced urban sounds) sound sculpture reconfigures the public space and can serve as an instrument for enhancing urban living conditions.
The emphasis on the audience’s agency allows to draw an analogy between Baschets’ practice of sound sculpture and Joseph Beuys’s idea of social sculpture, an instrument of artistic liberation. The different subgenres of sound sculpture that developed in recent decades have explored various ways of engaging and empowering the listener as an active participant of the music-making process, therefore removing the elitist barrier of professionalization. This paper discusses the ways in which sound sculpture, as an interactive and participatory art practice, reshapes the power relations, involved in music-making.
Video of Lectures by Vadim Keylin
Предметом лекции являются звуковые скульптуры и инсталляции в публичном пространстве. В отличие от белого куба галереи или безлюдных природных ландшафтов, подобный контекст позволяет трехсторонним взаимоотношениям звука, пространства и сообществ раскрыться наиболее полно. Анализ этих взаимоотношений вскрывает сложную сеть диалектик, реализующихся в произведении звукового паблик-арта: между найденным и созданным, намеренным и ненамеренным, природным и общественным.
Презентация к лекции: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxT28ypRkh8zZzdEQ280WUNKbkU/view
Видеозапись доклада: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb9Y_MJzu84
Full text: http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/spazidellamusica/article/view/1358/pdf
For full text see my webpage.
Full text can also be found at http://en.dada-avis.net/academic/
Полный текст доступен по адресу: http://ru.dada-avis.net/academic/
Взаимодействие двух жанров создает новые выразительные возможности для каждого из них. Акустический элемент делает «искусственные организмы» более жизнеподобными, дает им способность к самовыражению через голос. В то же время для звуковой скульптуры биоморфная модель открывает новый способ взаимосвязи пластического и акустического начал: через подражание живым организмам, чьи внешность и голос являются проявлениями единого генетического кода.
The basis of my presentation is the study of four sound artists and groups, whose work engages with the public space. The artistic collective O+A creates acoustic interventions into inhospitable urban soundscapes, using resonant bodies and electronic processing as filters that refine the place, transforming its noises into harmonies. Benoit Maubrey’s monumental speaker- sculptures extend the public space into the media sphere, subverting the antagonism between the two. With their sonic bikes, artists and engineers of the Bicrophonic Research Institute reinvent the soundscapes of city streets, shifting the perspective from muting or musicalizing traffic noise to making traffic itself musical. Jodi Roses’s work is concerned with reframing the cable bridges, singing in the wind, as found sound sculptures through site-specific performance and field recording. These four case studies show the sound sculpture’s unique ability to uncover the connections and intersections: of the natural and the urban, the found and the artistic, the community and the environments. Soliciting audience participation, both witting (through engaging its audience in sound-making) and unwitting (through appropriating the community-produced urban sounds) sound sculpture reconfigures the public space and can serve as an instrument for enhancing urban living conditions.
The emphasis on the audience’s agency allows to draw an analogy between Baschets’ practice of sound sculpture and Joseph Beuys’s idea of social sculpture, an instrument of artistic liberation. The different subgenres of sound sculpture that developed in recent decades have explored various ways of engaging and empowering the listener as an active participant of the music-making process, therefore removing the elitist barrier of professionalization. This paper discusses the ways in which sound sculpture, as an interactive and participatory art practice, reshapes the power relations, involved in music-making.
Предметом лекции являются звуковые скульптуры и инсталляции в публичном пространстве. В отличие от белого куба галереи или безлюдных природных ландшафтов, подобный контекст позволяет трехсторонним взаимоотношениям звука, пространства и сообществ раскрыться наиболее полно. Анализ этих взаимоотношений вскрывает сложную сеть диалектик, реализующихся в произведении звукового паблик-арта: между найденным и созданным, намеренным и ненамеренным, природным и общественным.
Презентация к лекции: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxT28ypRkh8zZzdEQ280WUNKbkU/view
Видеозапись доклада: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb9Y_MJzu84