Field Recordings: A Manifesto

Abstract

The article focuses on the political implications of field recording (FR) in relation to sound ecology, education, art, and technology. On the one hand, it discusses how FR can protect us as a social tool in a paradoxical relationship between FR as an artistic practice and social networks that motivate alienation. On the other hand, it addresses the difference between what we perceive as sonic properties used for aesthetic purposes and what neural networks compute to create their internal structures in the process of artificial intelligence. This article adopts a preliminary approach to the above-mentioned topics while it seeks to raise questions and awareness. Drawing upon such theorists as Voegelin, Steingo and Sykes, LaBelle, and Agostinho, it adopts a pragmatic perspective on everyday life and its political implications.