David Novak is Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of
Matt Sakakeeny is Associate Professor of Music at Tulane University, and the author of
David Novak is Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of
Matt Sakakeeny is Associate Professor of Music at Tulane University, and the author of
The term “transduction” describes a process through which sound changes as it traverses media, as it undergoes transformations in its energetic substrate (from electrical to mechanical, for example), and as it goes through transubstantiations that modulate both its matter and meaning. This entry tracks the history of the word transduction in acoustics as well as, more recently, in the field of sound studies. It contrasts “transduction” to “immersion,” which is often employed to describe a putatively unmediated experience of sound. Arguing that the material mediation of sound—and vibration—requires analytic attention, the entry summarizes the conceptual affordances of transduction. It also describes the parallel history of transduction as a term of art in process philosophy, particularly in the work of Gilbert Simondon. The entry concludes, however, that we must not take transduction as the really real of sound but must continue on beyond transduction.
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