The Sound-Poetry of the Instability of Reality: The audio reality effect and mimesis

Abstract

This article proposes the audio reality effect as a meaningful translation of Roland Barthes’s literary reality effect to the sonic realm. This refinement of transcontextuality and source recognition is applied to electroacoustic music and soundscape composition using the works and writings of Emmerson, Truax, Wishart, Smalley, Fischman, Young, Norman and Field. Lastly, this study mimetically analyses2 seconds / b minor / waveby Michael Pisaro and Taku Sugimoto in order to demonstrate the relevance of mimesis and the audio reality effect for understanding current musical practice.

Spectral Music and the Appeal to Nature

“…116 Indeed, a new generation of composers appear to share some aspects of Mâche's approach. Composers such as Peter Ablinger, 117 Aaron Einbond, 118 Alec Hall, 119 Chaz Underriner, 120 Charles-Antoine Fréchette, 121 and myself 122 have each developed bodies of work employing the spectral instrumental resynthesis technique while situating their aesthetic specifically around mimetic concerns. In that sense, their work and their understanding of 'nature' departs from the focus of the spectral school but owes much to its methods and perspectives.…”

Metaphor and Mimesis in an Animal Soundscape

“…Metaphor has been a topic of philosophical debate as early as antiquity with Aristotle and Plato's discussion of representation in art and language. 181 There is currently a body of empirical work in metaphor studies that indicate the prominence of metaphor in abstract thought. 182 More recently, non-verbal metaphor has been a point of interest in musicological discussions, particularly in the writings of Robert Hatten, 183 Michael Spitzer, 184 and Lawrence M.…”