Sounding Things Out: A Journey Through Music and Sound Art

Sound is ephemeral. It does not belong to anyone. It cannot be captured in words. Writing on sound art usually focuses on the same familiar figures, but Venrooij tries to broaden the field to explore artistic practitioners like the godfather of movie sound, Walter Murch, the king of the jungle Chris Watson, naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, pioneer wildlife recordist Ludwig Karl Koch, American pioneer composer and master teacher James Fulkerson, uncompromising composer Eliane Radigue, visionary sound sculptor Edgard Varèse, offbeat composer Luc Ferrari, true maverick Maryanne Amacher, and sonic terrorist MSBR aka Koji Tano. Following sound as a subject matter through the cracks where it isn’t supposed to go, and by exploring the spaces between sounds, she explores the subject, balancing out her experienced practice as composer with critical reflection.Esther Venrooij considers her dual roles as artist and composer as occupying two different sensorial planes. She creates work in a variety of media, such as composed music, improvised combinations of electronica, video and site-specific installations. With a sharp focus, both in her studies and creative impulses on audio topography, she explores the way sound and movement inhabits space. In November 2015, she completed her PhD studies in Art at KULeuven with an exhibition of a series of sound installations and a dissertation: ‘Audio Topography: The Interaction of Sound, Space and Medium’. In 2018, she was granted a ZAP-mandate at KULeuven, in the field “Spatial Experiences: Visual, Auditory, Sensorimotor, Tactile and Conceptual” and she supervises doctoral research projects.Table of contents:PreludeI. VesselII. IsolationIII.PerformanceIV. SpaceV. WorksArtistsBooksFilmsSongsIndexColophon