There are a number of different avenues I am interested in and could explore in this essay. I could choose to further the line of thought I introduced in my audio essay for the sound studies and aural cultures hand in, focusing on the importance of sensorial context in perceiving and forming an opinion on sounds, specifically through noise music. Today we discussed anthropology in terms of the senses. How where you are from and the cultural context you grew up in can effect your perception of how you perceive the information received from your senses. For instance, in Europe traditional music is meant to be observed or participated in, in a set type of way(waltzes etc.) while in many other traditional forms of music (Africa, the Philippines) interacting with sound is more loose and fluid, improvising and reacting to the sounds heard in that moment. This tacks onto my audio essay in how I discuss how listening is not just done with the ears but also with the senses.
Delving further into sound perception, I have been reading ‘Sonic Virtuality: Sound as Emergent Perception’ a book by Mark Grimshaw and Tom Garner that, through the exploration of video games and virtual reality, challenges the acoustic or standard definition of what sound means. Claiming that sound is a fundamentally virtual/imaginary phenomenon.
‘Sound is an emergent perception arising primarily in the auditory cortex and that is formed through the spatio-temporal processes in an embodied system.’
Mark Grimshaw/Tom Garner
Sound itself becomes sound in our auditory cortex, and so to perceive a sound, sensation (a sound wave or other material and sensuous sonic phenomenon) isn’t necessarily required. Furthermore, Sound waves are inherently meaningless; sound as emergent perception is meaningful as meaning is a property of sound.
The idea that sound has no ties to material phenomenon thus is imaginary and formed in the auditory cortex is an idea I would like to do more research on and hopefully base my essay question off of. I think there is a wide scope to work in with the sound piece part of the hand in as well.