Field recording: between documentation and sound-in-itself

• Grant number: 21/00879-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: November 01, 2021
• End date: June 14, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Henrique de Oliveira Iazzetta
• Grantee: Gustavo Branco Germano
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/00941-1 - Documentary approaches and ethical concerns in contemporary Brazilian field recording: analysis of four case studies, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

In this project, we propose an investigation of the artistic practice of field recording in the contexts of Brazilian experimental music and sound art. We use the expression "field recording" as a way to designate a particular type of artistic production that has developed internationally over the last three decades, therefore distinguishing it from more general conceptions of the same term. In this context, we try to understand how Brazilian field recordings have attempted to balance aesthetic and documental interests, positioning themselves somewhere between the opposite extremities of sound-in-itself and sound documentation. To achieve this goal, we propose an analysis of the practices and artistic works of four Brazilian artists who have dedicated themselves to this kind of production over the last ten years: Marco Scarassatti, Paulo Dantas, Raquel Stolf e Thelmo Cristovam. We also propose interviews with each of these artists and an analysis of the texts written about their works. With this study, we expect to show to what extent documentary aspects of phonography have been evoked in order to produce a socially and politically engaged artistic practice. (AU)