Esther Venrooij: Audio Topography: the Interaction of Sound, Space and Medium

Doctoral Project

Esther Venrooij, PhD in the Arts
In this PhD, I elucidate my position as an artist working with sound, among other materials. This first led me to the history of sound art and the construction of a sound work. What is sound? What is music? What is the difference between music and sound? In the twentieth century, these questions were further complicated by scientific and technological advances in sampling, processing, the synthesis of sounds and their precise distribution in space. Artists began to explore the architectural, spatial and physical qualities of sound, creating works which consisted predominantly or exclusively of sound. A new artistic discipline – sound art – arose, with a lesser focus on the organisation of time and a greater focus on the physical and spatial phenomenon of sound. Sound art interacts with the architectural environment in the sense that the topology of a building acts as a visual and aural cue for sound artists. To further answer the question of what form sound art may take, I established four categories of sound works that deal differently with the relationship between sound and architecture. 

Supervisors:

  • dr. Mark Delaere (supervisor, KULeuven)
  • dr. ir. Sven Sterken (co-supervisor, KULeuven)

Research unit: Image

Duration: completed 2015