Before Sound: Transversal Processes in Site-Specific Sonic Practice
Short description
Dissertation by Åsa Stjerna, 2018.
Before Sound: Transversal Processes in Site-Specific Sonic Practic is an artistic research project that explores artistic transformation through site-specific sonic practice. At its core, the doctoral research addresses sound installation as a multidisciplinary, transformative practice that takes place in public space.
In order to understand sound installation's transformative capacity, the author claims that we must address the complexity of the transversal processes that make up artistic practices in this field, and understand that these transversal processes in fact precede sound. Stjerna's work advances an understanding of site specificity that sees it as a complex, affective practice that spans and connects material, social, discursive, artistic, and technical realms, and that always occurs in a given situation in a particular public space.
Based on experiences drawn from the author's own practice in site-specific sound installation, the thesis explores three approaches, and a series of related conceptual tools, in order to articulate the nuances of transversal artistic processes.
Åsa Stjerna is a Swedish installation artist specifically working with sound and listening as her artistic media of exploration. Through her site-specific sound installations, she explores the often hidden underlying historic, social, political, and poetic phenomena connected to a place, making these perceivable. Throughout the years, she has been involved in a considerable number of site-specific processes in Sweden and internationally.