Abstract
This book consists of a mostly philosophical effort to make sense of what art theorist Christoph Cox describes as a ‘sonic turn in . . . arts and culture’ (p. 1). Through careful readings of various philosophical concepts (duration, ontology, materialism), artists (for example, Max Neuhaus, Christian Marclary, Alvin Lucier), and thinkers (Gilles Deleuze, Henri Bergson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Leibniz), Sonic Flux: Sound, Art, and Metaphysics does not simply offer a summary of various sound artworks as much as it rigorously maps out a philosophy of sound which extends beyond artworks – sound as an ‘immemorial material flow [that] manifests and models the myriad fluxes that constitute the natural world’ (pp. 2–3). For Cox, this ‘sonic flux . . . suggests a way of rethinking the arts in general’ (p. 37) founded upon a non-anthropocentric naturalism, or rather, an anti-humanist metaphysics, which pushes for critical artistic research through material and sensory experimentation and critical theory, something deeply significant for all culture. With an already extensive background in sound and philosophy – Cox is the author of Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation (1999) and the co-editor of Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music (Cox and Warner, 2004) – Sonic Flux has solidified Cox’s role as the definitive voice in the field of sound art.
Sonic Flux presents us with sound art’s long overdue conceptualization within contemporary discourse. In this text we encounter sound studies like never before, that is, as a site of courageous creative artistic research founded upon rigorous material experimentation and theoretical exploration. Cox’s background in philosophy, critical theory, and art history are clearly evident in this book and are greatly appreciated. With a bit of distance from music (sound art’s red herring), Cox offers a reading of sound art that traverses continental philosophy and visual culture studies. Some prospective readers will undoubtedly be curious or intimidated by Cox’s use of the term ‘metaphysics’. He asserts that his project is ‘metaphysical’ in the way that it ‘attempts to give a philosophical account of what sound is and how it comes to be individuated’ (p. 5). He quickly adds, however, that we mustn’t forget that his is a materialist, ‘immanent metaphysics’ (p. 6) and should not be confused with a transcendental framework. In fact, Cox argues against ‘Kantian or correlationist epistemology’ that dominates orthodox cultural theory, justly pointing out its ‘chauvinistic anthropocentrism’. Instead, working through Nietzsche and Deleuze to arrive at an ontology of sound, he posits that we must ‘think of sound as a continuous, anonymous flux to which human beings contribute but which precedes and exceeds them’ (p. 30).
Cox’s project is quite successful, but at times leaves more to be desired. One chapter in particular, ‘A Brief History of the Sonic Flux’, is a good example of his strongest and weakest suits. He convincingly produces an ‘account of the turn from music to a broader notion of sound that grounds the emergence of sound art’ (p. 45) by implementing various philosophies to work through a vast swath of artworks. In the first half of the chapter, Cox gives a brief but detailed history of ‘sonic capture’ – a broad term denoting audio recording, visual scores, etc. – to work through concepts such as noise, memory, and temporality. In the second half of the chapter, we see Cox retreat from the theory-heavy first half in order to delve into specific artworks. This approach is both successful and unsuccessful. For instance, the section entitled ‘Interlude – Christian Marclay: Repetition and Difference’ uses Deleuze’s concept of difference and repetition (inexplicably backwards in Cox’s usage), but neither offers an analysis or explication of the concept of difference/repetition, nor even mentions Deleuze for that matter, which left me both confused and wanting more.
At times, Sonic Flux feels like a philosophy lesson. But the overarching figure whose research and nomenclature are most evident is certainly Deleuze. Sonic Flux is fundamentally Deleuzian. From ideas found in other texts, for example ‘Beyond Representation and Signification: Toward a Sonic Materialism’ (Cox, 2011), Cox’s implementation of Deleuzian philosophy to sonic ends is both impressive and fascinating. By situating sound art within a philosophical canon (a task he has been taking on for two decades), Cox has done most of the heavy lifting of making sense of a field that has been left largely undertheorized. My biggest critique though is that this strikingly bold reliance on Deleuzian thought is not acknowledged in the title, subtitle, or even in the introduction. Of course, I do not mean to suggest that Cox is attempting to hide his Deleuzian underpinnings, he clearly isn’t. Nonetheless, finishing the book I was left with a new impression of the significance Deleuze’s research has had and can have on sound art, a fascinating and exciting revelation that I believe Cox should absolutely verbalize to his readers.
In conclusion, Cox’s text develops a sonic ontology, which not only offers a critical lens for making sense of sound artworks, but moreover one that leaves us with a new, greater understanding of visual culture in general. In this way, Sonic Flux reveals that sound art and experiments do not happen in a cultural vacuum but rather they are complex and productive instances of contemporary creative research. Sonic Flux signals the necessity of a sonic return to a history of philosophy, which Cox reveals has long been sonically inflected, yet largely overlooked by its practitioners. It situates and frames sound studies within a contemporary aesthetic, theoretical, and materialist discourse that will hopefully allow the field to engage more closely and regularly with Visual Culture studies.