Martin Knakkergaard

Unsound Sound: On the Ontology of Sound in the Digital Age

ABSTRACT This article discusses the change in premise that digitally produced sound brings about and how digital technologies more generally have changed our relationship to the musical artifact, not simply in degree but in kind. It demonstrates how our acoustical conceptions are thoroughly challenged by the digital production of sound and, by questioning the ontological basis for digital sound, turns our understanding of the core term substance upside down.