Today it is commonly accepted that acoustic sound cannot exist without a dimensional space in which to operate. With Stereophonica, Gascia Ouzounian reminds us that this prevalent idea only developed in the nineteenth century. The introduction traces a cultural history of sound as a spatial phenomenon, providing a foundation for seven wide-ranging chapters that investigate listening in urban spaces. Some chapters develop the social history of specific technologies while others provide accounts of contemporary artistic projects. This review will outline the contents of this volume before presenting critical remarks.
Continuing directly from the introduction, Chapter Two discusses how early nineteenth-century experiments with binaural audio created ‘a new kind of listening subject’ (p. 35). The account begins with a description of Charles Wheatstone’s Enchanted Lyre, an instrument that seemed to play itself, but which actually relied on hidden performers. A section on the differential stethoscope is supported by the writings of contemporary physicians, as well as art historian Jonathan Sterne.
Chapter Three examines the development of innovative acoustic devices during the First World War, focusing on sound detection rather than sonic warfare. Soldiers were specifically trained as ‘sound observers’, so that they could listen for gunfire, the exhaust note of aircraft, distant mining operations and other activities of the enemy. Several technologies based on binaural listening (geophone, topophone, horn locator) are distinguished from those based on vision (viseur acoustique, listening disc, paraboloïde Baillaud). While the former emphasise the skills of the listening subject, the latter circumvent the ear, transducing sound to information.
Chapter Four introduces Oscar, a mannequin with microphones in place of ears, created by Bell Telephone Laboratories to research concert listening. At the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, Oscar was the central feature of a stage show that enabled visitors to hear from his position, through two telephone receivers linked to his ‘ears’. In this way, electromechanical sensing created an uncanny listening experience. The remainder of the chapter focuses on sound transmission, reproduction and enhancement, including early experiments by Leopold Stokowski. This thread is continued in Chapter Five, which explains how theatre sound reinforcement extended to the emotional control of the audience. Similarly, industrial music was used to stimulate factory workers. The final sections document military applications of disconcerting or loud noises. What these subjects have in common is the assumption that a listening body can be explicitly ‘controlled, regulated, and modulated’ by its environment (p. 103).
Chapter Six shifts from cultural history to contemporary aesthetics, in order to examine the sound installations of Heidi Fast and Rebecca Belmore. The author touches briefly on electroacoustic music before giving an account of Fluxus and conceptual art. Sound artists Max Neuhaus and Bernhard Leitner are described in terms of installation art.
The following chapter considers acoustic ecology by first describing how the World Soundscape Project mapped urban noise. A short history of noise pollution and concerns for its abatement conclude with a brief critique of the practice of sound mapping. Since every site ‘has a dynamic and continuously evolving soundscape’, it follows that a static, spatially pinned sound is insufficient to represent the lived experience of this sonic milieu (p. 149). The emphasis on mapping noise contours limits our understanding of a listening subject as someone created through, and in relation to, their experience of urban noise.
A sensory-based approach to sound in urban environments has led, in recent years, to the development of the concept of the ‘acoustic city’. Chapter Eight presents Beirut as an example of personal interest to the author. Ouzounian’s socioeconomic concerns are articulated through the examination of six artistic interventions. One of the most intriguing is a project by Joe Namy and Ilaria Lupo. Concrete Sampling examines the pervasive presence of Syrian refugees by transforming construction workers into performers, improvising onsite with their usual tools redeployed as musical instruments. For the author such projects have a ‘forensic capacity’, developing awareness of processes that maintain Beirut ‘in perpetual upheaval’ (p. 168).
A short epilogue caps the text at 171 pages. The end matter includes chapter notes, references and index. At 58 pages, this extensive material positions Stereophonica as a good basis for further research. The book is well illustrated and formatted for readability.
A critique can begin with the title. Ouzounian uses the Greek root of stereo (meaning ‘solid’) to label a discussion of binaural audio. However, this subject is maintained only for the first few chapters, after which the topics diverge to the extent that it is difficult to relate the content back to the book’s title with any specificity. The author admits that the ‘improbable path’ through the subject matter is by design (p. 14). It is acknowledged that ‘[e]ach chapter could theoretically form the basis of a much longer discussion or even an entire book’ (p. 5). Inevitably, then, much is missing. The section on Oscar, the binaural mannequin, does not lead to a consideration of the kunstkopf. The chapter on acoustic defence only mentions in passing the large acoustic mirrors built in Britain from 1916. The discussion of Echo mentions her origins as Nymph in one sentence. Ouzounian references Francis Bacon, Ernst Chladni, Rodolphe Radau and Marin Mersenne on this subject, but not R. Murray Schafer, despite his presence elsewhere in the text. This highlights how the chapters tend to compartmentalise topics and their sources.
Some thematic linkages are found in the chapter conclusions, but these sections are short, sometimes only a paragraph or two. Much intriguing material is mentioned only in passing. For example, Chapter Seven’s discussion of mapping and noise profiles (described previously) raises critical points without mentioning Alberti’s perspectivism, Ptolemy’s formulation of geography, or any other historical reference that might shed light on how we represent places (geo)graphically. The brevity of the main text allows only tantalising glimpses of a more extensive discussion of the issues arising.
Certainly one volume cannot consider every source, nor take every explanatory path. But consider, as counterpoint, those books of David Toop that cover similarly diverse subjects (typified by Ocean of Sound and Haunted Weather). These episodic encounters are bound by the subjectivity of the author, his experiences, memories and imagination. This provides an anchor for what might otherwise be arbitrary choices. While Ouzounian’s formal writing style is enjoyable, this approach elides the subjectivity of the author. It is not until Chapter Eight that first-person accounts are provided, a degree of intimacy admitted, a personal connection between author and subject made. This allows the discussion of urbanisation in Beirut to resonate in a way that other accounts (e.g., the discussion of sound art in Chapter Six) do not. For this reader, that was the most successful chapter.
The ghost of the listening subject is ever-present throughout Stereophonica. The text returns to this spectre as a constant refrain, reconstituted from chapter to chapter as the ‘binaural listener’ (p. 35), the ‘military auditor’ (p. 59), the lover of ‘scientific music’ (p. 82), the listener ‘regulated’ by a theatre or factory environment (p. 103), the ‘acoustic subject’ of urban noise (p. 149) and, finally, in reaction to that hegemony, the politically aware ‘city dweller’ who can listen from ‘new perspectives’ (p. 168). In each case the listener is defined in reaction to other aspects of the narrative. The subject is not given volition, never defined in social, political or phenomenological terms. Neither does the author, as the central listening subject, allow herself to inhabit the text as her own space (as Toop, Katharine Norman and Salomé Voegelin have attempted). This ghost is missing both formal definition (which we might expect of an academic text) and personal subjectivity (which we might expect of less formal writing).
These misgivings only arise because the text that we do have is well researched and enjoyable. Stereophonica can be recommended to anyone interested in intersections of human geography, urban studies, acoustic ecology, audio technology and sound art. It is particularly suited to those who wish to extend their readings in one field across disciplinary borders. As a primer on diverse subjects, Ouzounian provides an excellent foundation for deeper research.
