Dall’ecologia acustica ad una nuova possibile ‘sonic ecology’: per un ascolto critico degli ecosistemi complessi

This article proposes a critical reflection on the theme of acoustic ecology, through questioning a series of categories that have traditionally oriented the concept of soundscape within the field of sound studies in recent decades.

Approaching soundscape in a critical perspective implies a break with the static categories that have determined its reading in most of the sound studies. Looking at some of the theoretical limits that are highlighted within the traditional sound studies discourse, can help to reconsider the contemporary soundscape as a critical space within which it is possible to question categorizations and relationships between subject and object, human and non-human, visible and invisible, material and ephemeral.

The analysis of this paper deals with the concept of ‘sonic’ ecology and its reconfiguration, through reflecting on the invisible agency of sound as a force that reveals the possible assemblages that generate places, opening the way to new research paths where redefine human and post-human negotiation. In this sense, sound suggests other modalities to rethink the relations between power, politics and space in a critical ecological perspective.