Physioactive Listening: Finding Auditory Liberation Within the Soundscape Through Listening and Movement

<p><strong>Andra McCartney acknowledges soundwalking as existing within two creative spheres; the fixed composition (the guided, timed soundwalk), and the improvisatory (untethered soundwalking) (McCartney, 2010). This research responds to the latter by suggesting a physioactive listening approach; an improvisational form of soundwalking with focus towards movement and the soundscape spectromorphology which occurs as a result of this movement. Within this exegesis and accompanying portfolio I navigate a framework for physioactive listening through the following topics: - The passive role of the listener in the present cultural context; - The commercial and institutional incentives towards greater cultural passivity, and how these incentives engender particular listening habits; - Connecting listeners with the wider soundscape (through use of improvisational listening practice); - Critical thought surrounding ways in which we can address problematic a priori understandings of the soundscape, in particular regarding definitions of noise; - The use of virtual reality and other novel frameworks to promote physioactive listening.</strong></p><p>While McCartney’s (2010) definition of “compositional soundwalking” is frequently used to introduce newcomers to the practice, “improvisational soundwalking” is less restrictive (in a physically exploratory sense), encouraging free movement while listening. Each work within my portfolio seeks to introduce an approach which combines both soundwalking methods, by providing an accessible structure through the use of contemporary aesthetic framing methods and installation practices all grounded in field recording. My portfolio invites uninitiated listeners to participate in a meaningful conversation about the soundscape, while critiquing normative discourses which are in part responsible, through educational negligence, for “deaf” ears. By creating spatial works that demand physiological movement, I aim to assist the listener in examining the links between movement and soundscape, while providing a space in which the listener can reevaluate their relationship to sound.</p>