Reflections on Sound Associations and Sonic Digital Environments
Sara Pinheiro, Jiří Rouš · Resonance The Journal of Sound and Culture · 2022
This essay uses a “thought experiment” in order to combine theories of perception with sound practices. For that, it explores the concept of “object of thought” and the process of brain-associations in relation to acousmatic composition and reduced listening. Throughout the hypothetical premise of a falling tree, the study brings to discussion digital environments, in particular in relation to methodologies behind game engines. Eventually, it proposes to divide the question “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” according to its multiple angles—the falling tree, the tree of thought, the sound of the fall, and the tree in the digital environment—in order to arrive at the ultimate question: Is there a tree, did it fall, is there a forest, is there a sound?