Sound’s Matter: ‘Deleuzian Sound Studies’ and the Problems of Sonic Materialism

TY - JOUR

T1 - Sound’s Matter

T2 - ‘Deleuzian Sound Studies’ and the Problems of Sonic Materialism

AU - Campbell, Iain

PY - 2020/9/2

Y1 - 2020/9/2

N2 - This article evaluates the theoretical and practical grounds of recent debates around Christoph Cox’s realist project of a ‘sonic materialism’ by returning to Gilles Deleuze, a key theoretical resource for Cox. It argues that a close engagement with Deleuze’s work, in fact, challenges many of the precepts of Cox’s sonic materialism, and suggests a rethinking of materialism in the context of music. Turning to some aspects of Deleuze’s work neglected by Cox, the ‘realist’ ontological inquiry Cox affirms is challenged through the ‘onto-ethology’ that Deleuze and Félix Guattari develop in their A Thousand Plateaus, with this diversely constructive theory of relations explicated through musical examples from John Cage and Pauline Oliveros. To conclude, this article suggests that Deleuze can indeed be understood as subscribing to a materialism, but a materialism that is practical rather than doctrinal.

AB - This article evaluates the theoretical and practical grounds of recent debates around Christoph Cox’s realist project of a ‘sonic materialism’ by returning to Gilles Deleuze, a key theoretical resource for Cox. It argues that a close engagement with Deleuze’s work, in fact, challenges many of the precepts of Cox’s sonic materialism, and suggests a rethinking of materialism in the context of music. Turning to some aspects of Deleuze’s work neglected by Cox, the ‘realist’ ontological inquiry Cox affirms is challenged through the ‘onto-ethology’ that Deleuze and Félix Guattari develop in their A Thousand Plateaus, with this diversely constructive theory of relations explicated through musical examples from John Cage and Pauline Oliveros. To conclude, this article suggests that Deleuze can indeed be understood as subscribing to a materialism, but a materialism that is practical rather than doctrinal.

KW - Christoph Cox

KW - Félix Guattari

KW - Gilles Deleuze

KW - John Cage

KW - Pauline Oliveros

KW - Politics of Sound and Music

KW - Realism

KW - Sonic Materialism

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85097433871

U2 - 10.1080/07494467.2020.1852804

DO - 10.1080/07494467.2020.1852804

M3 - Article

SN - 1477-2256

VL - 39

SP - 618

EP - 637

JO - Contemporary Music Review

JF - Contemporary Music Review

IS - 5

ER -