A SINISTER RESONANCE

Sound is a present absence; silence is an absent present. Or perhaps the reverse is better. sound is an absent presence; silence is a present absence? In this sense, sound is a sinister resonance-an association with irrationality and inexplicability, that which we both desire and dread. Listening, then, is a specimen of mediumship, a question of discerning and engaging with what lies beyond the world of forms. When sound, silence and other modalities of auditory phenomena are represented through "silent" media, this association of mediumship becomes more acute. Dwelling in every written text there are voices; within images there is some suggestion of acoustic space. Sound surrounds, yet our relation to its enveloping, intrusive, fleeting nature is fragile (a game of Chinese whispers) rather than decisive.