David Dunn Reading Response

After reading David Dunn’s Nature, Sound Art, and the Sacred, I was left feeling pretty impressed by the amount of thought and planning that goes into creating sound art. I assumed that it was more of a general mashup of sounds with little connection or meaning. However, after reading about his process to make the soundscape that conveyed the spirit of the African game park, it became clear to me that sound art is much more intentional than I thought. Composing sound art requires the ability to tell a story without words, just like ballet or a picture book. It also allows the listener to use intuition to create their own rendition of the story being told. He also goes on to note that sound has the ability to bridge the unthinkable gap between humans and everything else on earth. Almost everything produces some sound, from elephants to mushrooms to ants. When sound art uses these unusual sources as a grounds for creating art, it becomes a next level experience for the listener. Dunn mentioned making underwater recordings of vernal pools North America and Africa, which is certainly unique and possibly never done before. I like the idea of an art form that still has yet to be explored and shared widely, and I think that sound art has real potential in the future. It can be used to immerse listeners in a multi-sensory art exhibit, or it can go solo and be an auditory experience with many layers to it.