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Devorah Kalekin-Fishman
Hearing is an unprotected sense. While one can choose what to see, to touch, and in many instances, what to smell, only 'technology' can screen out sounds. This does not imply that the interpretation of sounds or their representation is unambiguous. During the last century, sound recordings have been used, among others, to classify sounds mathematically, measure physiological reactions, trace the distribution of sounds in language, or investigate them as evidence of types of interaction and of psychological states. In the realm of aesthetics, grasped as a unique domain, sounds are researched in comparative musicology, while the use of 'natural' sounds in and as music is also extensively discussed. In sociology sounds can be seen as a channel for mapping performances of everyday life shaped by hegemonic social structures,[i] that impose taken-for-granted reality through the control of sound configurations. Relating to the variety of approaches to studying sound, Potamitis and Ganchev[ii] state that the differentiation of frameworks for analyzing sounds undermines scientific understanding. They conclude that 'there is much space for knowledge transfer between the different subfields of sound classification, which seem to evolve independently …'. Knowledge transfer can begin with representation. Once the cognitive barriers between 'music' and 'noise' are removed, it is possible to see that categories deployed in musical performance can represent sounds of all kinds, and provide the ground for comparison across 'subfields'. Illustrations from kindergarten ethnographies shed light on the potential of such analyses.
[i] Kalekin-Fishman D (2010) Sounds that unite, sounds that divide. (pp. 19-39) Kalekin-Fishman, D and Low KEY, Everyday Life in Asia. Surrey: Ashgate.
[ii] Potamitis I and Ganchev T (2008) Generalized recognition of sound events: approaches and applications. Studies in Computational Intelligence, 120/2008: 41-79. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-78502-6_3. Retrieved, 7 December 2011.