Preface
IN_LISTENING_IN is an ambisonic essay. It is an attempt to find an alternative and accessible audio form for creative theorising where the format reinforces and enacts the ideas being proposed: that listening is an embodied, embedded experience in correlation to sound; and that to theorise this sonaural relation requires a complex immersed subjectivity. The work exploits the dynamic spatialised audio capacity facilitated by online 360VR formats; however, it flips the visual focus of the medium, offering minimal figurative imagery to enable a stronger focus on the spatialised audio.
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The work draws on my current research into alternate creative digital delivery modes for sound theory, experimenting both with ficto-critical strategies and online formats to enact key conceptual points around sounaurality. It explores discussions as to the ontology of sound as a relationship between the subject, the sound and environment that draws on phenomenology and embodied cognition. It then proposes a position of theorising from within, inspired by the epistemological theories of Voegelin, de Certeau, Haraway and Barad, developing a proposal for what I call a tomographic approach. It incorporates spoken text—slipping in and out of personal reflection and theoretical argument—with creative sonic material, including field recordings from South Korea, Japan, France and Denmark.
For dynamic 360 ambisonics, the work must be experienced with headphones, using the YouTube app (iPhone | Android) on a phone or tablet. It is designed to be experienced without the need for VR goggles for greater accessibility, however, it does work using VR equipment. Please note that viewing through a web browser offers a non-dynamic stereo version (i.e, the sound does not adapt as specifically to your mouse movements). This is an unfortunate limitation of the current available formats. As demand for projects in the 360 format increases, this technological issue will hopefully be resolved.