Sound as Material for Eco-technogenesis

This paper delineates the conceptual outcomes from a two-week intensive cross-disciplinary conversation between an art historian, an interaction designer, and an artist/engineer. With the aim of applying the concept of technogenesis to an exploration of sound as material for art and design, we consider sound as a material force within an ecosystem. Through this lens, sound produced by either life- or technological-forms allows us to consider the ecological impact and potential meanings of generated sound. Drawing on biosemiotics, we propose that the co-evolution of sound, technology, and environments, what we call eco-technogenesis, demands relational, and thus ethical, thinking. The rowdy krause, an autonomous sonic agent, designed by Kadish to identify and inhabit an acoustic niche within an ecosystem, serves as a case study for thinking through eco-technogenesis.