Abstract

The book on the semantics of sound by School of Art & Design researcher Mathias Fuchs has been published by Berliner Wissenschaftlicher Verlag and will be in the bookshops by the end of October. Mathias investigates the possibilities of assigning meaning to sonic structures and starts with a critical review of traditional theories. Sound has been described as a language, a narrative, a representation of extra-musical objects, as a non-discursive set of symbols or as an emotion. In his 368 pages publication he offers a new way of understanding audio by “looking” at it as play. He further suggests to employ a methodological approach of exploring meaning between the established and new systems of reference. The book features an in depth analysis of sound art pieces as different at Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Hymnen, Missy Elliott’s Pass that Dutch and Robert Morrris’ Box with the Sound of its Own Making.