Blog #10 -- Francisco López

In class, we were given a packet of articles to read that contained some authors with interesting theories regarding sound. One author that I found particularly engaging was Francisco Lopez, so I continued to explore his theory further. 
Francisco López takes exception to many of the standard ways of considering nature sound production, and makes a case for a "profound listening" that is quite separate from contextual references. Influenced by the acousmatic theories of musique concrète, his approach has been to focus on the sound itself rather than its source. In contrast with his own recording “La Selva”, López criticizes the scientific approach of bioacoustics or ‘documentary’ nature recording. “As soon as the call is in the air,” he asserts, “it no longer belongs to the frog that produced it.” He dismisses the tendency of acoustic ecologists to elevate an ideal natural soundscape (preferably pre-industrial in character) over an environment of man-made sound. His suggestion that no recording is ever scientifically ‘objective’ places the emphasis on the shaping, even aesthetic, decisions of the artist or recordist: microphone placement, equipment choice or editing, for example. He disagrees with any claim at locating an objective musicality in environmental sound: “It’s our decision – subjective, intentional, non-universal, not necessarily permanent – that converts nature sounds into music.”