tweeting topoi

This blog was started largely as a space to begin exploring and collecting pieces of what might constitute research avenues in my scholastic future. I’m a grad student and still looking at several semesters of coursework before I can actually begin to assemble sources for the dissertation project. I’ve discovered that this space, already, is being neglected as my focus (for now) remains stretched in diverse places.

Likewise, my interests also stretch across a variety of fields and practices, and even as I have begun a (somewhat) rigorous study of rhetorical history (and as should be obvious), I am hard-pressed to divert my attention away from new-medias, including the wide array of communication/writing tools available via the web.

All of this is to say, that though Twitter has little to do with sonic rhetorics (besides it’s pseudo-aural moniker–though, as I write this, it occurs to me that there may be more connection than I first supposed ), it remains one of my favorite ways of collecting and disseminating my ideas in this modern sphere. Therefore, while I think that this blog-space will remain somewhat sleepy, I will attempt to carry out my initial hunting/gathering impulse via Twitter: @sonicrhetorics

See you in the Twittersphere.

moving background music to the foreground

Making the jump in English from literature to writing studies was prompted, in large part, by the prospect of investigating a variety of “texts” as cultural artifacts. Rhetoric started to be an exciting topic for me when I started to see it in the street as graffiti and in films like Blade Runner and (oh, alright) Back to the Future.

Back to the Future wouldn’t be as great as it is without all that great sound–the score, the sound effects, and, wow, that soundtrack. Think about it. Two words: Huey Lewis.

Seriously, though. Sound production in film is usually at its best when it is subtle and mixed in a way that directs attention where it should be. Swelling when the action swells and providing subtle embellishment to the narrative: highlighting moments, drawing together scenes.

This semi-erasure of the audio deserves some thought–or at least some alternatives to consider.

Here are three examples of shows I’ve seen recently that push on those traditional boundaries:

Bill Frisell’s Disfarmer Project. At the show, Frisell and his band played while portraits taken by Arkansas photographer Mike Disfarmer were displayed on large, multi-windowed projection screens.

Many of us were there to hear and see Frisell, so the images had his reputation to compete with. As presented, however, the focal point shifted back and forth from the band to the images, and they each seemed to share the spotlight.

Also at Ellnora, Alex de Grassi performed guitar music as an accompaniment to a the Japanese silent film “The Story of Floating Weeds.”  Again, the spotlight shifted. The audience was asked to consider and observe both the plot of the film and also de Grassi’s new composition. The performance brought to the surface questions about de Grassi’s process as the composer of such a piece as well as a very real sense of how music shapes our perception of visual media.

My favorite Ellnora multi-mediated performance was titled “The Long Count.” It was created by members of the Brooklyn band The National and featured Kim and Kelly Deal from The Breeders, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, as well as a 12-person orchestra. This presentation was, by far, the most abstract of the three. It shifted from sounding like rowdy, instrumental-rock to soaring operatic vocal performance and then shifted again into a sort of avant-garde brass free-for-all. All the while, animated images played out, projected behind the musicians. But it wasn’t like a typical rock-show visual display. The images were part of a fragmented narrative–part of the puzzle to be unraveled. Costume changes, Yankees v. Reds audio clips, and ancient Mayan references made The Long Count one of the most interesting and musically engaging experiences I’ve had. I’m still working through potential meanings, but one thing is certain: it is a work of sonic/visual art–one that moves away (far away!) from the typical partnership that audio and video usually share.

A week later I saw another performance that fits in with the three mentioned above: The Books. Again, we have the pairing of live music performed while a visual of some sort is projected behind the musicians. This this case, the video content comes from found-vhs footage that the two members of the band, Paul de Jong and Nick Zammuto, collect in during their tours. Here’s an example of their work (just imagine the musicians playing in a shadow in front of the YouTube window):

The band’s website is also an interesting place to play and think about the sound and pictures. They describe themselves as collectors of both images and sounds and they showcase each in their flash-based site.

Listen. Explore.

Introduction and Roundup

I’ve been thinking about this project for at least a year now and I’m anxious to see the shape that it takes. As I’ve stated earlier I’m interested in sound: as music, rhythm, speech, sound effects, ambiance, etc. I’m interested in how sound is and has been used as a pedagogical aid (as connected to grammatical and rhetorical training [from progymnasmata to epideictic]  throughout the ages), but also how sound is used as a rhetorical tool in our modern mediated environments. As a simple example if what I mean, here is a clip from John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” I showed yesterday in a class I teach here at Illinois called Writing Across Media. In this (now-dated) BBC series he demonstrates how sound can be used strategically to change perception (starting about a minute in):

Music as techne has much in common with the “art of words”–rhetoric. My goal here is to explore those commonalities–many of which I hope to show as congruities.

I’m new at this. The blog designed to be a heuristic for invention and networking. I am only just beginning to explore what has been published on the topic and I hope that readers, if there be any, will chime in often with discussion, suggestions, and corrections.

Here are a few places on the web that a quick search turns up as having connections with my topics. I know that this is the tip of a large ice burg:

Ambiance and Rhetoric on the RSA “Blogora”: Thomas Rickert (with some nice Led Zep and Joshua Gunn references)

Voice in the Cultural Soundscape: Sonic Literacy in Composition Studies: Michelle Comstock and Mary E. Hocks

Reading Sonic Culture in Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” : Andrew Hansen

I’ll add more as I come across them… watch for a link out to a bibliography site of one kind or another.

Finally, you’ll forgive the use of this site as a place for posting links out to great music I come across. I promise that it won’t be the kind of “check out my new favorite band” stuff that you can get at 100 other sites, but rather a thoughtful exploration of the ways in which musicians use their art to influence and, if you will, “persuade” audiences.

Sounds like…

Welcome to Sonic Rhetorics. In the proceeding months, I’ll use this space to highlight interesting stuff that I see and, more importantly, HEAR about on and off these here internets.  I hope, most of all, to begin nurturing and exploring ideas at the intersection of rhetoric and sound. Stay tuned.