During the last months of 2020, I started a master’s degree that has pleasantly surprised me. Although it initially seemed unrelated to my work in audio, studying 'cultural management' has introduced me to a new and exciting world closely tied to my interests. In some readings, I encountered the term "acoustemology". At the time, I did not know what it meant but due to its etymological roots, the word caught my attention.
Ethnomusicology, anthropology, and acoustics—along with music studies and soundscapes—have helped interpret sound waves as representations of collective relationships and social structures. Examples include sound maps of cities and countries that reflect information about indigenous languages, music, urban areas, and natural landscapes:
Mexican sounds through time and space: https://mapasonoro.cultura.gob.mx/
Sound Map of the Indigenous Languages of Peru: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.mapasonoro&hl=en_US&gl=US
Meeting point for the rest of the sound maps of the Spanish territory: https://www.mapasonoro.es/
The life that was, the one that is and the one that is collectively remembered in the Sound Map of Uruguay: http://www.mapasonoro.uy/
As Carlos de Hita says, our cultural development has been accompanied by soundscapes or soundtracks that include the voices of animals, the sound of wind, water, reverberation, temperature, echo, and distance.
But it is with the term acoustemology, which emerged in 1992 with Steven Feld, where the ideas of a soundscape that is perceived and interpreted by those who resonate with their bodies and lives in a social space and time converge. An attempt is made to argue an epistemological theory of how sound and sound experiences shape the different ways of being and knowing the world, and of our cultural realities.
But then another concept comes into play, perception. Perception is mediated by culture: the way we see, smell or hear is not a free determination but rather the product of various factors that condition it (Polti 2014). Perception is what really determines the success of our work as audio professionals, so I would like to take a moment with this post to think over the following ideas and invite you do it with me.
As audio professionals, perception is central to our success. This prompts reflection:
Do we stop to think about the impact of our work on the cultures in which we are immersed?
Do we worry about taking into account the culture in which we are immersed when doing an event?
Do we develop our work solely to meet economic and technological guidelines, ignoring cultural ones?
When planning an event, do we focus on using only what is truly necessary? Do we set limits, or do we let our egos guide us to use everything manufacturers offer, without considering the economic, social, and environmental impacts this might have on the location where the event will occur?
Do we genuinely care about the message we want to deliver, or are we more concerned with making the audio as loud as possible—even louder than necessary?
Do we take the time to consider what type of amplification an event truly requires, or do we simply load up with microphones and speakers—believing that more is better, especially if it's immersive sound—without ensuring clarity or understanding?
Do we care about what the audience really wants to hear? Are we aware of noise pollution or do we just want the concert to be so loud that people can't even hear their own thoughts?
Are we mindful of creating recordings that genuinely reflect and preserve our own culture and that of the performer, or are we solely focused on winning awards at any cost?
Have we shared all the knowledge we have about audio, or are we still competing to prove that we know everything and are technically the best? Or is it time to humanize our work and place our practice as audio professionals within a cultural context?
I remember an anecdote from a colleague, where he told how after doing all the set up for a concert in a Mexican city, it was only after the blessing of the shamans and the approval of the gods that the event was possible.
Our work as audio professionals should be focused on dedicating ourselves to telling stories in more than acoustic terms, conveying stories that bear witness to our socio-cultural context and who we are.
"Beyond any consideration of an acoustic and / or physiological order, the ear belongs to a great extent to culture, it is above all a cultural organ" (García 2007)
References:
Bull, Michael; Plan, Les. 2003. The Auditory culture reader. Oxford: Berg. New York.
De Hita, Carlos. 2020. Sound diary of a naturalist. We Learn Together BBVA. Spain Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdFHyCPtrNE&list=WL&index=14
García, Miguel A. 2007. “The ears of the anthropologist. Pilagá music in the narratives of Enrique Palavecino and Alfred Metraux ”, Runa, 27: 49-68 and (2012) Ethnographies of the encounter. Knowledge and stories about other music. Anthropology Series. Buenos Aires: Ed. Del Sol.
Rice, Timothy. 2003. "Time, Place, and Metaphor in Music Experience and Ethnography." Ethnomusicology 47 (2): 151-179.
Macchiarella, Ignazio. 2014. “Exploring micro-worlds of music meanings”. The thinking ear 2 (1). Available at http://ppct.caicyt.gov.ar/index.php/oidopensante.
Victoria Polti. 2014. Acustemología y reflexividad: aportes para un debate teórico-metodológico en etnomusicología. XI Congreso iaspmal • música y territorialidades: los sonidos de los lugares y sus contextos socioculturales. Brazil
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