Przemilczenia

Abstract

The authors of this essay place Marcin Dymiter’s books – Field Notes (2021) and Machines for Silence (2023) – both against the background of his sound art and in the broader context of silence as one of the most important cultural topos of the 20th century. The common value of both publications is undoubtedly the attempt at an in-depth contextualization of sounds and places, but the historical paragraphs merge into reflections on contemporary sound art. This split seems to characterize the entire diction of the author, who multiplies oppositions between a “culturally noisy” present and a sonically ordered past. The author of Machines... listens to silence in an anthropocentric silence, which reduces language and sound to the role of communication tools, while the a-communicable, chaotic nature of silence – which John Cage equates with ambient sounds – recedes into the background. The titular figures of Dymiter’s books – recording and silence – are metaphors with the help of which the author conducts an anti-modern narrative; beyond their potential to evoke nostalgia for the past, do they have a bearing on the present and its most important problems? Key-words: acoustemology, silence, field recordings, soundscape