Ad-Hoc Aesthetics: Context-dependent composition strategies in music and sound art

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinos Koutsomichalis

Contemporary trains of thought largely denounce hylomorphism and a series of dichotomies of the past in favour of rather hybrid, all-inclusive and non-anthropocentric schemata. Yet, the former seem to still pervade our understanding of music and sound art in several respects. For many, composition is a primarily abstract process, musical instruments and audio-related technologies are fixed material means, and artists are creative individuals who are solely and primarily responsible for the artworks they produce. In this article a series of ad hoc and context-dependent compositional traits are scrutinised, with reference to theory as well as to actual artistic practice (both historical and contemporary), and are shown to transcend such assumptions in more or less straightforward ways. In particular, a series of practices is examined that revolves around material inquiry, anti-optimality, and hybrid, reflexive or ‘meta’ interfaces. More, DIWO (Do It With Others) approaches to composition are discussed and shown to echo adhocracy and contextual dependency in various respects and by means of emergent autopoiesis. Certain slants to DIWO are finally examined with respect to a series of powerful (in the author’s opinion) metaphors, namely emergence, transience and post-selfhood.

2017 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-155
Author(s):  
Eleanor F. Moseman

Abstract The Surrealist artist Richard Oelze’s postwar enterprise was one of inner reflection and personal questioning linked to the broader project of coming to terms with the past. The essay takes a critical view of his artworks and his automatist Wortskizzen to assess the manner and extent to which Oelze utilizes his artistic practice as a mode of working through his, and Germany’s, complicity with the Nazi regime. Analysis of the Wortskizzen exposes how verbal probing informs Oelze’s visual expression of inner turmoil, while implied gaps and voids in paintings and drawings puncture space as well as time, illuminating memory and blending the past with the present. Oelze’s serious play with word and image in turn invites his viewers to release repressed memories through reflective contemplation.


Tempo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (295) ◽  
pp. 31-44
Author(s):  
Maayan Tsadka

AbstractSonic botany is an ongoing project that I have been developing over the past few years. It incorporates natural artefacts: dry leaves, pods, flowers, branches, rocks, bones and other organic findings. These are used as musical instruments that are played on with a scientific/musical tool: tuning forks in various frequencies. The vibration from the tuning forks resonates through the natural artefacts which amplify the vibration and – via sound – reveal the texture, size, material and condition of the organic matter. This process generates new sonic material, new context and new forms of musical composition. The practice developed into several compositions and projects, a performance practice, a notation system and a way of listening. Here I share some of the insights I gained through this process, the tools and the compositional framework.


2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gascia Ouzounian

This article introduces examples of recent sound art in Belfast, a city that has undergone radical transformation over the past decade and is home to a burgeoning community of sound artists. The text investigates the ways in which sonic art can redraw boundaries in a city historically marked by myriad political, socioeconomic, religious and sectarian divisions. The article focuses on sound works that reimagine a “post-conflict” Belfast. These include site-specific sound installations in urban and public spaces, soundwalks, sculptures, locative and online works, and experimental sonic performances that draw upon traditional Irish song and music.


1972 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 207 ◽  
Author(s):  
DT Pegg

In conventional electrodynamic theory, the advanced potential solution of Maxwell's equations is discarded on the ad hoc basis that information can be received from the past only and not from the future. This difficulty is overcome by the Wheeler?Feynman absorber theory, but unfortunately the existence of a completely retarded solution in this theory requires a steady-state universe. In the present paper conventional electrodynamics is used to obtain a condition which, if satisfied, allows information to be received from the past only, and ensures that the retarded potential is the only consistent solution. The condition is that a function Ua of the future structure of the universe is infinite, while the corresponding function Ur of the past structure is finite. Of the currently acceptable cosmological models, only the steady-state, the open big-bang, and the Eddington-Lema�tre models satisfy this condition. In these models there is no need for an ad hoc reason for the preclusion of advanced potentials.


Author(s):  
María Teresa Martínez-Romero ◽  
Antonio Cejudo ◽  
Pilar Sainz de Baranda

Puberty is a vulnerable period for musculoskeletal disorders due to the existence of a wide inter-individual variation in growth and development. The main objective of the present study was to describe the prevalence of back pain (BP) in the past year and month in school-aged children according to sex, age, maturity status, body mass index (BMI) and pain characteristics. This study involved 513 students aged between 9 and 16 years. Anthropometric measures were recorded to calculate the maturity stage of the students using a regression equation comprising measures for age, body mass, body height, sitting height and leg length. An ad hoc questionnaire composed of eight questions was used to describe BP prevalence in school-aged children. The results showed that the prevalence of BP in school-aged children was observed in 35.1% over the last year (45% boys and 55% girls), and 17.3% (40.4% boys and 59.6% girls, with an association found between female sex and BP) in the last month. The prevalence of back pain in the past year and month was higher the older the students were, or the more pubertal development they had experienced. The prevalence of BP in the last year was also higher in those with overweight or obesity. After adjustment for sex, there was an association between BP and older age and higher BMI in boys and an association between BP and higher pubertal development in girls. In summary, the present study showed that the prevalence of BP was related to the maturity stage and weight of the participants, with different prevalence patterns found according to sex.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Gheyle

In the past 20 years, two related literature strands have gradually moved centre stage of the attention of EU Studies scholars. The first is preoccupied with the ‘politicization of European integration’, a multi-faceted concept that aims to tie together a multitude of political and societal manifestations underlying an increasing controversiality of the EU. A second concerns the parliamentarization of the EU, referring to the changing (institutional) role and EU-related activities national parliaments engage in. The key point of this contribution is simple, but often overlooked: We can and should be seeing parliamentarization as a necessary, yet insufficient, component of a wider process of politicization. Doing so goes beyond the often ad hoc or pars pro toto theoretical assumptions in both literature strands, sheds new light on the normative consequences attached to these phenomena, and furthers a more complete understanding of how a ‘comprehensive’ politicization of European policies develops.


Hypertension ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P Juraschek ◽  
Lawrence J Appel ◽  
Edgar R Miller

Background: Hypertension trials that monitor orthostatic hypotension (OH) compare standing to seated blood pressure (BP) rather than supine BP. We determined the impact of a supine vs seated position on OH prevalence and its relationship with fall risk and orthostatic symptoms. Methods: The Study to Understand Fall Reduction and Vitamin D in You (STURDY) was a randomized trial testing the effects of vitamin D3 dose on falls in adults age ≥70 years at higher risk of falls. OH was determined at baseline, 3, 12, and 24 months with each of 2 protocols: (1) seated to standing and (2) supine to standing. OH was defined as a drop in systolic or diastolic BP of at least 20 or 10 mm Hg. Participants were asked about orthostatic symptoms in the past month. Falls were ascertained via daily fall calendar, ad hoc reporting, and scheduled interviews. Results: Among 522 participants with 953 OH assessments (mean age 76 ± 5 years, 42% women, 18% Black), mean baseline BP was 129 ± 18/68 ± 11 mm Hg. Mean BP increased 3.4/2.6 mm Hg after sitting, but decreased -3.7/-0.7 mm Hg after being supine. OH was detected in 2.2% of seated vs 14.8% of supine assessments. Supine OH better predicted falls (HR 1.60; 95% CI: 0.98, 2.61; P =0.06) than seated OH (HR 0.70; 95% CI: 0.30, 1.60; P =0.39), although both were non-significant ( Figure ). While seated OH was not associated with orthostatic symptoms, supine OH was associated with a greater risk of fainting, blacking out, seeing spots, room spinning, and headache in the prior month ( P -values of 0.048 to 0.002). Conclusions: Supine OH was more prevalent and appeared to better predict falls and orthostatic symptoms than seated OH. These findings support a supine protocol for OH in clinical practice.


Resonance ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Judy Dunaway

Over the past 40 years “sound art” has been hailed as a new artistic category in numerous writings, yet one of its first significant exhibitions is mentioned only in passing, if at all. The first instance of the hybrid term sound art used as the title of an exhibition at a major museum was Sound Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), shown from 25 June to 5 August 1979. Although this was not marketed as a feminist exhibition, curator Barbara London selected three women to exemplify the new form. Maggi Payne created multi-speaker works that utilized space in a sculptural fashion; Connie Beckley combined language and sounding sculptural objects, showing sound in both a conceptual and physical manifestation; and Julia Heyward’s work used aspects of feminist performance art including music, narrative, and the voice in order to buck abstract aesthetics of the time. This paper uses archival research, interviews, and analysis of work presented to reconstruct the exhibition and describe the obstacles both the artists and the curator encountered. The paper further provides context in the lives of the artists and the curator as well as the surrounding artistic scene, and ultimately exposes the discriminatory reasons this important exhibition has been marginalized in the current discourse.


Leonardo ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-155
Author(s):  
James Hullick

This article discusses how an understanding of prosthetic imagining has influenced the making of sound machines for the Amplified Elephants—a group of sound artists living with intellectual disabilities. This research is contextualized through the discussion of relevant precedent artists: performance artist Stelarc and sound artist Ernie Althoff. The article presents the point that sound art (including music) is a predominantly prosthetic art form; sound-making devices (including traditional musical instruments) can be conceived of as prosthetic audio devices. Investigating notions of prosthesis can inform us further on the human condition.


1988 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
M.W. Aalderink

Compared with speaking, writing can be considered to be relatively context independent with regards to both process and product. Young children appear to have problems creating, without interactional support, a discourse that can function as a meaningful whole for a non-present reader. As a result their writing can be contextual dependent in some sense. In this article contextual dependency is discussed on a theoretical level and by illustrating it by means of an example of a seven year old writer. Possible relations between contextual dependency and both cognitive development and individual differences in oral language are considered, and some empirical data are presented that show how frequent and in which ways the texts of beginning writers can be context dependent. From this study it can be concluded that the textuality of young childrens' written products should be defined from the perspective of the child and considering the context in which they were written.


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