[Muwisys] Call for submission - Organised Sound 25/3 'On Phonosophy'

[Leigh Landy]

Organised Sound: An International Journal of Music and Technology

Call for submissions, Volume 25, Number 3

Issue thematic title: On Phonosophy
Date of Publication: December 2020
Publishers: Cambridge University Press


Issue co-ordinators: Kenneth Fields (kenfields at ucsb.edu<mailto:kenfields at ucsb.edu>), Marc Battier (marc.battier at ems-network.org), Paul Rudy (rudyp at umkc.edu<mailto:rudyp at umkc.edu>) and Tyler Kinnear (tkinnearsound at gmail.com)

Deadline for submission: 15 January 2020

In proposing this hypothetical binary called phonosophy, by combining sound (phono) and wisdom (sophia), we aim to explore the real possibility of sonic wisdom – with an aligned sophic. Skolimowsky in his short original treatise called Eco-philosophy, said that “logos is a very subtle and all-pervading form of praxis”, which is how we must live phonosophy. In other words, in light of the effectiveness of wisdom being applied in the realm of logos (philosophy), what would the effect of wisdom be when coupled with sonic practice? Goethe indicated that “poetry points to the riddles of nature and tries to solve them by means of the image. Philosophy directs itself to the riddles of reason and attempts to solve them by means of the word. Mysticism considers riddles of both nature and reason and seeks to solve them through both word and image”. What ‘riddles’ do phonosophers attempt to solve? Let us explore the dynamics of a mutually informed organisation of sonic nature and consciousness via the laws and ethics of resonant sentience.

Who were you rooting for in the Bergson-Einstein debates of the early 20th century as described by Jimena Canales, about the meaning of relativity, when the ‘philosopher and the physicist became engaged in a bitter dispute… and Bergson lost to the young physicist’. The ultimate authority of philosophy and science changed positions at this critical juncture in history, all due to the reformation of the concepts of duration, time, movement and simultaneity, a skirmish which ultimately affected all disciplines in the last century. It was well known that Varèse was highly influenced by the new physics at the turn of the century, but also by the mysticism and alchemy of Wronsky and Paracelsus respectively. Perhaps we can say that Varèse intuitively grasped the intellectual dynamics of his time and produced an alchemical transmutation of the new concepts of time, space, matter and causation into a new aesthetics of organised sound. All social forms (political/economic/scientific) seem so critically to revolve around these historical/cultural theories of space, matter and time. Who now, but the phonosopher, is uniquely placed in the context of these dimensions to ‘frack’ a theoria (if we must) towards a new (post-Varèsean) eco-sophiac paradigm?

In this issue, we want to start building a literature and methodology around sonic wisdom. Given the intellectual turns of the past, there may be a need to return to crucial epistemological forks in the road (like Bergsonian intuition), from which can emerge an eco-sophiac aesthetic, bridged by a recognition of the part that our own discipline has played in thoughtless ecological destruction, diminished humanity and displaced species (sonic colonialism) – while we question our complicity in the technophilic generalis. What have we obliterated on our hasty path of progress through the wild indigenous sound-world? Do the projects of eco-musicology, acoustic ecology and soundscape composition completely satisfy this perceived urge to reconnect, restore, relearn, resonate, reveal, revere, cultivate and heal? Ecological systems may not be logical at all; Eco-tuitive systems are more about multiplicity, decentralisation, infinite variety, organicism. How is authority, wisdom, judgement, the good, established in this new milieu?

We also encourage submissions of electroacoustic pieces as a direct realisation of phonosophy, or sonic wisdom. A short (e.g., one page) explanation of the piece must follow the above conditions of this now more properly termed call for papers/works.

Topics for investigation might include:

-       Deep or conscious listening

-       Listening as an active tool for creation

-       Hybrids: sono-noetics, acoustemology, phonogenous

-       Indigenous methodologies of sound

-       Ethics of sonic appropriation

-       Politics of the phonocractic

-       Phono-nomics (economies of sound)

-       Use of sound in religious or spiritual ritual

-       Healing and sonic resonance in medicine

-       Mystical influences in sonic practice

-       Sustainability and sonic wilderness

-       The sonic-turn



As always, submissions related to the theme are encouraged; however, those that fall outside the scope of this theme are always welcome.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 January 2020
SUBMISSION FORMAT:

Notes for Contributors and further details can be obtained from the inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or at the following url:

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayMoreInfo?jid=OSO&type=ifc (and download the pdf)

Properly formatted email submissions and general queries should be sent to: os at dmu.ac.uk<mailto:os at dmu.ac.uk>, not to the guest editors.

Hard copy of articles and images and other material (e.g., sound and audio-visual files, etc. – normally max. 15’ sound files or 8’ movie files), both only when requested, should be submitted to:

            Prof. Leigh Landy
            Organised Sound
            Clephan Building
            De Montfort University
            Leicester LE1 9BH, UK.

Accepted articles will be published online via FirstView after copy editing prior to the paper version of the journal’s publication.

Editor: Leigh Landy
Associate Editors: Ross Kirk and Richard Orton†
Regional Editors: Ricardo Dal Farra, Jøran Rudi, Margaret Schedel, Barry Truax, Ian Whalley, David Worrall, Lonce Wyse
International Editorial Board: Marc Battier, Manuella Blackburn, Joel Chadabe, Alessandro Cipriani, Simon Emmerson, Kenneth Fields, Rajmil Fischman, Eduardo Miranda, Rosemary Mountain, Tony Myatt, Garth Paine, Mary Simoni, Martin Supper, Daniel Teruggi