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Currents Retrospective

Multimodal

Multimodal Composition and Reception

Danko Nikolić wrote in a 2009 article that what we typically term “synesthetic” experiences might be more properly noted as the results of “ideasthesia,” which roughly translates to “sensing concepts.” Rather than one sense being linked to an entirely separate one, Nikolić posits that it is our semantic understanding - our systems of meanings and symbols - that evoke associated senses.

Rhetoric and pedagogy can often move beyond the written and spoken word in a similar way, becoming beautifully confusing, sensorial - ideasthesic - moments. In 2011, Currents devoted an entire issue ("Writing with Sound”) to discussing the role(s) and potential of soundscapes as they are incorporated into the field of writing and rhetoric. How do meaning, language, and feeling interact in hybridized mediums that refuse to be confined by contemporary understandings of narrative and argumentation? How is meaning-making complicated by these new forms of composition? Whether it’s through e-poetry, hypertext, videos, or podcasts, the digital world has contributed to the rich, transformative layers of rhetorical experience.

In  “Nietzsche was a DJ” (Sound performance by Avital Ronell/Tatjana Mesar (flute); Transcription/Translation by Pearl Brilmyer and Trevor Ho), we are presented with a tribute to, and analysis of, Nietzsche’s philosophies regarding music, delivered through an ongoing human conversation interspersed with the sounds made by inhuman instrumentals. On the other hand, in “inter.Virtual.Vitalism.views: Aural Encounters with Byron Hawk, Victor Vitanza, and Alex Reid” (by Geoffrey V. Carter) and “Noise from the Street: Introducing, Interviewing, Amateuring” (an interview with DJ Spooky conducted by Will Burdette), we are presented with two different, but equally productive, ways of approaching the relationship between sound and rhetoric. The former arrives by way of the academic - by composition and formal pedagogy - and the latter, through remixes and “amateuring.”

Featured Articles:

2011 sound banner

Nietzsche was a DJ

Sound performance by Avital Ronell/Tatjana Mesar (flute) Transcription/Translation by Pearl Brilmyer and Trevor Hoag (2011, Issue 15)

inter.Virtual.Vitalism.views

Aural Encounters with Byron Hawk, Victor Vitanza, and Alex Reid by Geoffrey V. Carter (2011, Issue 15)

“Noise from the Street": Introducing, Interviewing, Amateuring

DJ Spooky (Paul Miller) interview with Will Burdette (2011, Issue 15)

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