Some epistemological and ontological reflections on sound recordings

MIGUEL A. GARCÍA

Bangkok

Simposio; Theories and Methods of Ethnomusicology and Ethnochoreology in Different Parts of the World; 2018

Chulalongkorn University

The main scopes of the presentation are to think about the representational character of sound recordings and about a particular use that ethnomusicologists and historians make of them. By means of the revision of bibliography generated in different disciplines, the criticism of a series of preconceptions, and my work experience at the Phonogramm-Archiv of Berlin and at the Carlos Vega Archive of Argentina, a provisional definition of sound recording will be outlined. I will focus on the scientific, aesthetic, ideological and technological forces that govern the generation of sound recordings, as well as the conditioning role that the Archive institution has in their creation, storage-classification, study and edition. I will propose the idea that a sound recording is, fundamentally, a register of the recording itself. Keywords: sound recording, sound archive, Archive institution, epistemology and ontology of sound recording.