Nice article by Steven M. Miller at Trebuchet.
When approaching audio field recording (often referred to as ‘phonography’) as a sound art practice, inevitable questions of aesthetics surface.
The common attitude often expressed or implied runs something along the lines of “What is the artistic element of so seemingly ‘passive’ an activity as pointing a mic and pushing the record button?” (reminiscent of similar historical attitudes about photography as a fine art).A picture of a waterfall by Sean Keenan
Without addressing the implicit assumptions of transparency of mediating technology, or getting into the hands-on techniques involved (both worthy subjects and amply covered elsewhere), I’ll focus instead on the aesthetic qualities of the recordings themselves that reward focused, intensive (i.e., active and engaged) listening.
via musicofsound
