Toward a Dark Nature Recording
Bibliography
Michael, D. (2011). Toward a Dark Nature Recording. Organised Sound, 16(3), 206–210. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355771811000203
Abstract
Nature sound recording has long been criticised for the artifice of the documents it produces. Joining this easy target is the implication that the form’s aesthetic frame, which often intends to promote our connection to nature, actually serves to disconnect us. This paper reviews critiques of nature sound recording and suggests that by confronting what it excludes from ‘nature’, the form might yet come to terms with ecology.
Notes
Toward a Dark Nature Recording
Go to annotation“Nature sound recording has long been criticised for the artifice of the documents it produces. Joining this easy target is the implication that the form’s aesthetic frame, which often intends to promote our connection to nature, actually serves to disconnect us. This paper reviews critiques of nature sound recording and suggests that by confronting what it excludes from ‘nature’, the form might yet come to terms with ecology.” (Michael, 2011, p. 206)
- Go to annotation“INTRODUCTION” (Michael, 2011, p. 206)
- Go to annotation“ENVIRONMENT AND FRAME” (Michael, 2011, p. 206)
- Go to annotation“CRITIQUING THE NATURE SOUND FANTASY” (Michael, 2011, p. 207)
- Go to annotation“CONFRONTING BEAUTIFUL NATURE” (Michael, 2011, p. 208)
- Go to annotation“TOWARD A DARK NATURE RECORDING” (Michael, 2011, p. 209)
Notes
- when we appreciate the aesthetics of nature, what are we actually appreciating?
- many of the early and popular sound recording projects concentrated on constructing a pristine clean and idealized nature
- despite the artists being aware of the bad state the ecology is in, they try to capture and preserve, and in doing so, create a rift between us and what there really is
Go to annotation“The premise appears that the recordings will somehow sensitize the listener to a greater appreciation of the natural world, when in fact they are more often perpetuating a nineteenth-century vision of nature y I can certainly understand the preservation of actual biohabitats – but not as recorded sonic objects.” (Michael, 2011, p. 208)
- but, our experience of actually being “there” and listenting the “there” are fundamentally different
- recent works and movement are more honest towards including that which we did exclude until now, the unpleasant, the waste, the death, that with disturbs
Go to annotation“We might call this ‘dark’ nature recording, after theorist Timothy Morton’s ‘dark ecology’. In Morton’s conception, a dark ecology is meant to help stimulate an understanding that environment is everything including (and perhaps especially) those things we would perhaps rather not see. While it too is an aesthetisation of nature, its intended use is as a tool to expose our biases.” (Michael, 2011, p. 209)