Resonating with the Past: Mediation of Memory in Sound Sculptures

Sound sculptures can serve as resonant mediums of remembrance, reawakening historical soundscapes and evoking memories through the use of sound. In this way, they enable a sensory connection to the past. This paper explores how sound functions as a semiotic resource, interacting with other modalities within sound sculptures and the contexts in which they are placed. It examines how memory can be accessed through the sense of hearing and investigates cases where sound memorializes historical events.

I draw on a social semiotic approach, particularly Günter Kress’s theory of multimodality, considering sound sculptures as multimodal texts and multisensory objects. Complementing this, I employ sound theory and acoustic ecology studies, primarily the works of Raymond Murray Schafer, which provide a language for describing the sound modality within sound sculptures.

To ground this exploration, I analyze sonic objects and sonic events in the sound sculptures by artists Bill Fontana, Markus Kison, and Nikita Kadan through the lenses of the acoustic ecology framework. These works exemplify how sound can operate as both a symbol and a mnemonic trigger, how its sensory and emotional dimensions contribute to memory-making processes.