Body Soundscape

Abstract

Starting from an interdisciplinary perspective of methodological integration of the concepts of body and sound in the contemporary dance scene, this chapter addresses the general aesthetic notion ofsonorous body. Through a survey of some key practices and pieces by Wayne McGregor, Ginette Laurin, Angelin Preljocaj, Cindy Van Acker and others, the author analyzes the audiovisual dimension of these works, developed with digital technologies and in a collaboration of choreographers with electronic musician and sound artists such as Scanner, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Granular Synthesis, and Mika Vainio. This audiovisual tension, defined as the sonorous body, can be read through two interpretations. In the first, thesound is a body, which means the electronic sound of the scene is an acoustic material. In the second, the body is a sound, which means the body of the dancers produces the soundscape of a scene.