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3 Notes:Jason Cress

Recently, we've been interviewing sound practitioners about futures and futures practitioners about sound. 3 Notes is an ongoing series exploring the ways people engage with sound and the future.

Sound is a powerful organizer

“So I really like the how sound can challenge the ways we think. That's what popped out to me, in particular, I think the most rudimentary definition of sound and then how it applies to music and humans is probably like “organized” - organized sound. So that element of organization, it's like who's doing the organizing, you know? Who's observing that organization?”

Sound is a unique way to perceive  the world

“Humans, the way we sense sound, is different than the way we sense like visuals, for example so that can inform the psycho-acoustical experience, if you will, and I think its interesting to look at how sound is more ephemeral in some ways than visuals. The way we interpret sound information is different than the way we interpret visuals. Which has implications for how we can organize this stuff, to influence other people or give them a certain type of feeling or give them a certain type of experience.”

Sound is a potential disruptor

“In academia I often found that we're just using electronics to mimic acoustic instruments, and I thought that's strange because this is a fundamentally different technology. So in my opinion, I feel like it makes sense that we would pursue gestures and social interactions that are a little bit different than, you know, acoustic oriented musics. I didn't really find it, so that's why I thought, well, I need to at least experiment with it, and that became the SHAPE project.”

Jason Cress is an interdisciplinary
sound artist.
His compositions and
soundworks have been performed across the U.S. and internationally. His most recent project includes developing instruments that safely biodegrade in the environment.

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