Abstract
This essay critiques the notion of soundscape and proposes the concept of acoustic milieus as an alternative conceptual tool to facilitate our understanding of the human condition mediated through and with sound. As a kind of ‘charged atmosphere’ to use Kathleen Stewart’s expression, an acoustic milieu, offers a rich understanding of everyday practice which often seems to be banal, ephemeral and resistant of scholarly interpretation. An acoustic milieu, similar to any charged atmosphere, is not completely natural or neutral; they are sentient, technical and anthropological. They are composed, set in motion and, if not taken care of, puffed out or exhausted away. An acoustic milieu, like a spider web, a kind of ‘exorganismes’, to use Bernard Stiegler’s language, once created, reciprocates a new kind of life. To answer to the call of Gregory Bateson that one needs to think ecologically, an acoustic milieu is a conceptual tool to help one towards perceiving the circuit, rather than just its arc.
To have done with soundscape
Soundscape refers to a collection of all kinds of sounds of a certain place. The term was first used by the Canadian acoustic ecologist and composer Murray Schafer in his widely known project titled ‘World Soundscape Project’. Soundscape is intended to be an all-encompassing concept. ‘The soundscape is any acoustic field of study’ (Schafer, 2012, p. 99). The notion of soundscape treats sound as an object, something to be measured, categorized and rearranged. Schafer (1977) suggests major features of soundscape, including keynote sounds, sound signals, soundmarks and archetypal sounds which were less used by Schafer and his followers compared to the other three. With soundscape, Schafer opens a new path for human’s investigation of the world by offering a toolkit with vocabularies, methods and goals. Sound is no longer something too abstract to grasp in language. Operating within the framework of landscape and the visual understanding of things, the sonic environment seems to be all of a sudden within control. Similar to drawing a map of a landscape, according to Schafer, one can now compile of a map of soundscapes, collecting and documenting sounds as objects. Examples of sound maps now overflow the virtual world. One can listen to the sound of a particular place at a certain time of a day by a simple click.
Without disappointment, the term quickly finds it popularity in various fields of practices, including acoustic ecology, geography, sound design, music and the arts. However, a few scholars soon began to settle down to problems this idea has generated. As directly as Tim Ingold (2007) put it, ‘I believe however that it [soundscape] has now outlived its usefulness’ (p. 10). For Ingold, soundscape is problematic for four reasons. First, the concept of landscape where the term soundscape was claimed to be modelled on is not tied to any particular senses. Instead, one engages the land with one’s body through all senses (p. 10). Second, ‘ears … are organs of observation, not instruments of playback’ (p. 11). Soundscape, instead, makes one thinks that the function of hearing is to record sound and to playback. This ties to the third reason Ingold argues. That is, sound ‘is not the object but the medium of our perception. It is what we hear in’ (p. 11). The second and the third reason both alert the danger of subjectifying the ears and objectifying sound. The fourth reason points out that light and sound should not be separated in one’s ordinary experience. They are the medium through which one moves in the world. While Inglod discusses the conceptual problems with the term soundscape, other scholars criticize it from a cultural perspective, focusing on the incapability of the notion of soundscape to facilitate an understanding of different cultural and individual energies carried and generated by sounds.
David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny (2015) point out that,
presumptions of universality have also led scholars to treat sounds as stable objects that have predictable, often technologically determined, effects on a generalized perceptual consciousness, which might even be reduced to an entire ‘human condition’. This bias is detectable in the work of sound studies’ de facto founder, R. Murray Schafer (1977), who did not explicitly recognize the constitutive differences that participate in the ‘soundscape’ as a multivalent field of sound with divergent social identities, individual creativities and affordances, biodiversities and differing abilities. (p. 7)
There are revised versions in conceiving the notion of soundscape. One of the most significant redefinitions comes from Emily Thompson (2002), who identifies the multivalence and particularly confirms the physical and cultural constitutions of a soundscape. ‘A soundscape is simultaneously a physical environment and a way of perceiving that environment; it is both a world and a culture constructed to make sense of that world’ (Thompson, 2002, p. 1). Thompson explains,
the physical aspects of a soundscape consist not only of the sounds themselves, the waves of acoustical energy permeating the atmosphere in which people live, but also the material objects that create, and sometimes destroy, those sounds. A soundscape’s cultural aspects incorporate scientific and aesthetic ways of listening, a listener’s relationship to their environment, and the social circumstances that resulted from these mediations were objects of scientific scrutiny. (pp. 1–2)
Emily Thompson’s re-definition of soundscape is epistemologically different from Murray Schafer’s. While Schafer holds sound-as-particles/objects, Thompson leans towards conceiving sound-as-energy.
As Wittgenstein (1973) would say, ‘speaking of a language is part of an activity of a form of life’ (p. 23). To use the term soundscape is to agree with (consciously or unconsciously) the ideology and epistemology behind the language. The term needs an urgent update to revive the epistemological vitality of sound-mediated human world.
Thus, I suggest that we abandon the language of soundscape and began to develop a new one, a new way of perceiving the acoustic world. While arguing against the concept of soundscape, Ingold (2007) suggests an alternative way of understanding sound, using examples of weather, wind and breath:
… it seems to me, moreover, that what applies to wind also applies to sound. After all, the wind whistles, and people hum or murmur as they breathe. Sound, like breath, is experienced as a movement of coming and going, inspiration and expiration. If that is so, then we should say of the body, as it sings, hums, whistles or speaks, that it is ensounded. It is like setting sail, launching the body into sound like a boat on the waves or, perhaps more appropriately, like a kite in the sky. (p. 12)
What Ingold describes is more like a hint or a direction. Thinking of sound in relation to wind and breath, suggests a rather different way of thinking. Resonating with Ingold’s argument, what the rest of this essay is set to accomplish is to re-conceive the acoustic world that I propose to call, acoustic milieu.
An acoustic milieu is developed out of an ontology that considers everything in connection and in a constant movement, drawing from Chinese philosophy and contemporary western philosophy, particularly writings by Gregory Bateson, Bernard Stiegler, Kathleen Stewart and Zhang Zai (
Valley echoes and the sound of thunder are examples of [sound produced by] two quantities of ch’i [pressing together]. The beating of a drumstick against a drum is an example of [sound produced by] two forms [pressing together]. A feather fan and a flying arrow are examples of forms pressing against ch’i. The human voice, or the reeds of a ‘Pan pipe’, are examples of ch’i pressing against form.
For Zhang, sound is similar to colour and smell; all are manifestation of the changing nature of ch’i. The cosmology of ch’i constitutes the core of my conception of acoustic milieu. Drawing from more detailed analysis of Western theorists, I argue that an acoustic milieu is more than an environment, it is actively produced and it has the characteristics of being material, semiotic and mnemic. To develop the notion of acoustic milieu, it is necessary to begin with the term milieu.
Milieu
Milieu is a French term, often translated as environment in English and jing (
The term milieu has been an increasingly important notion to understand the livings. The French philosopher Georges Canguilhem (2001) gives a thorough account of the history of the thinking of milieu in his article ‘The Living and Its Milieu’. At first, a notion in physics referring to fluid and medium, milieu later becomes a term widely used in biology, geography and philosophy. For the geographer Alexander von Humboldt, one can only understand life on earth through life’s relation to its geographic milieu, the land, the planet and cosmos. For Darwin the biologist, milieu is a collection of physical forces. The Darwinian view of the living life’s relation to milieu introduces the social into the conception of milieu. Canguilhem (2001) describes milieu as continuous and homogeneous, ‘with no definite shape of privileged position’ (p. 11). He emphasizes that the milieu is really a pure system of relationships without supports. The relationship between the living and the milieu, as he proposes,
is like a debate … in which the living brings its own norms of appreciating the situation, where it is in command of the milieu and accommodates itself to it … A healthy life, a life that is confident in its existence and in its values, is a life that extends itself yet that is also almost gentle in its flexibility. (p. 6)
While defining a human subject as a creator of techniques and values, Canguilhem argues,
… the milieu on which the organism depends is structured and organized by the organism itself. What the milieu gives to the living is a function of its demand … the milieu that is proper to man is the world of his perception, that is to say the field of his practical experience in which his actions, oriented and regulated by values that are immanent to his tendencies, carve out certain objects, situate them relative to each other and all of them in relation to himself. (p. 21)
Therefore, Canguilhem emphasizes that the living creates their own environment. The Chinese Chan Buddhism has a saying that shares similar thought, Jingyou Xinsheng (
In Tang Dynasty, Chan Buddhism reached its height, the relation between Xin
Simondon updates Canguilhem’s notion of milieu by exploring the constitutive role of the milieu of the living. He describes the kind of machine that could convert environment into a function of itself as associated milieu. According to Simondon, quoted by T. Novaes de Andrade (2008),
… this milieu, at the same time natural and technical, can be called associated milieu … this milieu is not manufactured, or at least not in its entirety; it consists of a certain regime of natural elements that involve the technical being … mediating [associated milieu] the relationship between the manufactured technical elements and the natural elements in the interior of which the technical being works. (p. 12)
Sharing a relational ontology with their predecessor Simondon, Deleuze and Guattari (1987) use the term ‘associated milieu’ interchangeably with ‘annexed milieu’:
Associated milieus imply sources of energy from alimentary materials. Before these sources are obtained, the organism can be said to nourish itself but not to breathe; it is in a state of suffocation. Obtaining an energy source permits an increase in number of materials that can be transformed into elements and compounds. The associated milieu is thus defined by the capture of energy sources (respiration in the most general sense), by the discernment of materials, the sensing of their presence or absence (perception), and by the fabrication of nonfabrication of the corresponding compounds (response, reaction). (p. 51)
They use the example of the spider web to illustrate this associated milieu. As they humorously put it, the spider web implies that ‘there are sequence of fly’s own code in the spider’s code; it is as though the spider had a fly in its head, a fly “motif,” a fly “refrain”’ (p. 314). While the Western thinking of the livings and milieu is analytical in explaining how one lives, Chan Buddhist discussion of xin and jing leads towards a moral-aesthetic philosophy, speculating how to live an enlightened life. The notion of acoustic milieu is informed by both lines of thinking.
The acoustic milieu of a Chinese Pavilion
Acoustic milieu refers to the milieu that are created primarily through and with sound or the perception of listening. Acoustic milieu, in turn, gives breath to life, turning life into an assemblage, the spider – web – fly, tick – mammals, and I would add, a wanderer – the Chinese wind listening pavilion. The ancient Chinese know how to create an acoustic milieu to cultivate one’s inner and exterior life. The Chinese pavilion is a type of traditional architecture, more often seen in temples, public areas and private gardens, and often named as wind listening pavilion or rain listening temple and so on. In private gardens, the pavilion suggests a pause of meandering wanders, rendering a moment of concentrated listening. The site where the pavilion was built was also selected according to the direction of wind, surroundings of trees, plants, architectures and paths to reach certain kinds of harmony. It was built with sensual experience as an intrinsic element in design. The wind listening pavilion was not only a space but also exists as ‘a tertiary retention’, a memory of not only the content but also a gesture of sensing (Stiegler, 2008). The acoustic milieu of a private garden is designed for sound to happen. A listening experience is dependent on the exterior factors such as the weather. Listening to the wind requires certain sensibility which takes time to develop. sometimes, listening/sensing is what really matters. In modern times, there are landscape professionals who are trained to design acoustic milieus. Muzak, custom-made background music for commercial spaces, infuses shopping malls, elevators, man-made gardens and airports. Muzak is created for inducing or sustaining certain states of mind/body. If the acoustic milieu formed with muzak sustains and consumes, the acoustic milieu of a Chinese pavilion cultivates. One numbs the senses, the other sharpens them.
Acoustic milieus ‘At War’
In the case of a Chinese pavilion or a modern shopping mall, acoustic milieu has to be immersive and subliminal. However, it can be loud, extreme and violent too. Hefang Stree, one of the most important commercial streets in Hangzhou 2 since Song Dynasty, is now a busy tourist site renovated in the style of Song Dynasty. Young saleswomen standing at the door of the silk shop call out: ‘Last call, last call for summer discount!’ ‘Ten yuan for a silk scarf!’ Two muscular young men hammer down onto a big ceramic jar filled with cooked glutinous rice. Hey! Heey! Hey Heey! Hey! Heey! Hefang Street is an acoustic ocean, or more precisely, with pockets of acoustic milieus, it is a ‘sonorous archipelogo’ as Francois Bonnet (2016) would call it. A new milk tea shop was opened next to an old one, attracting a long line of customers. The old milk tea shop launched a sonic bomb one afternoon without any warning. Two huge speakers stood outside of the old milk shop like bodyguards. ‘Shuang shuang Shuang Shuang Shuang, Hayi Youo o’. Electronic Chinese pop with brianwashing melody blasted out like a stone-mixed with-mud-flood. The whole street was trembling. The long line dissipated in seconds. The light Taiwan-pop melody played at the new milk tea shop was volumed up. Music switched twice to keep up the sonic battle.
Acoustic milieus claim power and domination. Julian Henriques (2003) writes about dancehall crowd and carnival parade in how ‘they enjoy the feeling they’re “taking charge,” “owning the street” and assuming their value, importance and identity’ (p. 453). Henrique uses the term ‘sonic dominance’ to describe the situation when sound strikes one with its ‘sheer physical force, volume, weight and mass’ and when ‘sound has the near monopoly of attention’ (p. 451).
The militaries and the police know how to turn sound into weapons. Since June 2014, South Korea has used matrix of high-decibel loudspeakers to play K-Pop towards North Korea along the border. The speakers were turned off in April 2018 to create a more peaceful atmosphere in preparation for the summit between presidents of two countries. In late September 2005, the Israeli Air force launched in total 28 sonic booms over 5 days every midnight at Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. The high volume and deep-frequency sounds cracked walls and windows, causing anxiety attacks, muscle spasms, heart problems and miscarriages. Victims were interviewed. ‘I have never heard such a loud explosion. I thought it was right over the top of my building’ 3 (‘Palestinians hit by sonic boom air raids’, 2005). The objective, as Steve Goodman (2009) analyses, ‘was to weaken the morale of a civilian population by creating a climate of fear through a threat that was preferably nonlethal yet possibly as unsettling as an actual attack’ (p. 33). Sound of frequencies, below 20 Hz or above 20 kHz, affect the body and brain without been consciously recognized. Mosquito, a sonic device, is used to dispel teenager congregations by emitting sounds from 16 to 18.5 kHz. The irritating high-pitched sound can only be heard by children and teenagers under the age of 20.
Making sense with acoustic milieu
A 7-Elven convenient store in California uses classical music to dispel loiterers. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was played at Hamburg Railway Station to keep away homeless people. Not as violent as sonic bombs, acoustic milieu of classical music functions through a specific way of knowing, which is ‘sensual knowing’ for Gregory Bateson (2000) and ‘a-signifying semiotics’ for Felix Guattari (1995).
The semiotic of acoustic milieus transduces through energy and flows that do not mean anything but can be felt. To put in another way, acoustic milieus express. The verb ‘express’ here is intransitive, an a-signifying expression. ‘The flow of surrounding sonority can be heard to weave an individual into a larger social fabric, filling relations with local sound, sonic culture, auditory memories, and the noises that move between, contributing to the making of shared spaces’ (Labelle, 2010, p. xxi). In the case of 7-Eleven or Hamburg Railway Station, it is to make spaces unsharable using the same principle. Acoustic milieus always suggest boundaries, communicated through a-signifying semiotics in the sense that it does not go through the route of interpretation.
Painters and poets often know how to communicate one’s experience of a certain acoustic milieu, better than a field-recordist. Without sound recording devices, ancient Chinese use painting and poetry to depict one’s felt acoustic milieus with both exterior and interior dimensions. The Ming dynasty painter Shen Zhou (1427–1509) sat in his study situated in a sound saturated dark night, creating the water-ink painting ‘Night Vigil’ (夜坐, 1492). In the poetry written on the upper part of the painting, Shen narrates his listening experience.
One does not make sense of the acoustic milieu; one makes sense with it. This is, for Bateson (2000), a special form of knowing we call adaptation rather than information (p. 134). Acoustic milieu requires a new epistemology that is ecological. Think of Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) example. A spider weaves with a code of fly in its mind. It suggests embodied knowledge through which one becomes aware of relations that constitute micro and macro worlds. An evaluation of an acoustic milieu is always an evaluation of certain sets of relations. Instead of evaluating a sonic environment as hi-fi or lo-fi as Schafer (1977) suggested, one should ask how does the ecological relations change mediated through sound.
Krapp’s last tape
Not only does one make sense with acoustic milieu, one remembers with it. In pre-modern times, tribe elders, storytellers, folklore singers and sorcerers play the role of sound recorders. Using examples of listening to melody, Husserl (1928/1964) argues that the flow of each notes retains in the perception, making the unity of the perception of the entire melody possible. This is the function of primary memory. When one recalls the melody heard yesterday, one is using secondary memory (Roberts, 2006). Expanding on Husserl’s discussion, Stiegler (1998) suggests the term ‘tertiary retention’ to describe the role sound recorders plays. ‘The record allows both the perception of the melody and, crucially, the constant modification of that perception through repeated auditions’ (Roberts, 2006, p. 6). Hence an acoustic milieu is mnemic, in the sense that it contains a tertiary memory, an external memory organ, exorganisme that remembers. Technology is more than a tool; it shapes how one perceives and senses. To use Stiegler’s expression, which he borrows from the artist Joseph Beuys, technology ‘sculptures’ the human beings and the society.
Krapp, the character in Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape, lives his life in the acoustic milieu he meticulously built and managed. Sorting out a tape, rewinding it, setting up the tape recorder and pressing ‘play’ become deeply ritualized acts for the old Krapp. Listening to his recorded voice that narrates his past is a rite-of-passage to the joy of life. The sonorous presence of younger Krapp enacted through sound recordings makes him a crowd.
Conclusion
Murray Schafer’s (1977) soundscape project is often considered an ecological endeavour, ‘policing’ noise pollution caused by industrialization and urbanization. The notion of acoustic milieu is ecological in a different sense. As Gregory Bateson (2000) reminds, to think ecologically is to perceive the circuit, rather than just its arc. The perception of acoustic milieu requires one to perceive relations beyond information. The goal here is by no means to overlook problems caused by noise pollutions. The goal is to call for a more appropriate paradigm to perceive sense data. Acoustic milieu should not be objectified as soundscape. Grounded in a relational ontology and ch’i-based cosmology, I try to advocate acoustic milieu to be a unique infrastructure through which one understands better oneself and the others.
Footnotes
Funding
Research for this essay was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China.
2.
Hangzhou is the capital city of Zhejiang Province in South China. It was the Capital of South Song Dynasty (1260–1279).