Sonic Interventions Conference Report

Conference Report:Sonic Interventions: Pushing the Boundaries of Cultural AnalysisAmsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Universiteit von Amsterdamby Marisa S. Olson
The Sonic Interventions Conference was described by its organizers,the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, as an interdisciplinaryconference "dedicated to exploring the cultural practices, aesthetics,technologies, and ways of conceptualizing sound, noise, and silence."
One might imagine that this is an enormous topic, just as enormous asattempting to categorize something as pervasive as light, with whichsound is frequently lumped. Taking the example of a panel discussionon the radio, consider the differences between discussing the radio indomestic life in the 1920s and the entire cultural history of thepolice radio. Interesting connections emerged and, yet, there was notenough time to address them in a single panel. And, of course, theseare just fractional aspects of radio history, and of sound, writlarge.
The conference was driven by a large number of such concurrent panelsessions, which tended to foreclose the possibility of any twoconference-goers having a "common experience," or of a consistentdiscourse emerging. The organizers also asked speakers to limit theirpresentations to ten minutes, rather than the standard twenty, inorder to be more conducive to conversation among the thinly-spreadaudience.
Despite the structural obstacles and the broad topic, SonicInterventions managed to play host to a number of interestingpresentations. Though a wide net was cast in the call for proposals,inviting artists and engineers to contribute, in addition to thetypical range of academic papers, the program ultimately skewed in thedirection of the academy. Sonic Interventions, then, became anopportunity to survey some of the more interesting contemporaryhumanities research related to sound.
Keynote speaker Douglas Kahn was among the better-known soundtheorists present and his opening talk provided an art historicalbackdrop for the next four days of discussion. In lieu of discussingsound art, proper, Kahn actually discussed artistic research intostates of soundlessness. In a reprise of his catalogue essay for theSon et Lumiere show at the Pompidou, Kahn discussed John Cage's andJames Turrell's notions of "silence," and perception in general.Discussing the former's visit to an anechoic chamber and the latter'semulation of such a space, Kahn began to outline a phenomenology ofcorporeal sound; one concerned with the difference between perceivingthe sounds of the body (of the blood flow, or even of thought) asinterior or exterior events