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Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, GAMMAgreen/x-sea-scape, 2006, installation view, \Invisible Geographies: New Sound Art from Germany

Questions of Practice: Philosopher Christoph Cox on Approaching Noise Music

Questions of Practice: Philosopher Christoph Cox on Approaching Noise Music

“You have to get inside the music, rather than hearing it as something that has a progression,” says Christoph Cox when asked how audiences can approach noise music—which he describes as part of a series of musics that are “more immersive than narrative.” Rather than listening for more traditional elements of musicality like form and structure, Cox finds that noise music offers an opportunity for listeners to experience new sonic experiences that present intensive textural movements.

Philosopher Christoph Cox on approaching noise music. Filmed at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage on April 20, 2015.

Christoph Cox is Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College. He is the author of Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation (1999), and co-editor of Realism Materialism Art (2015) and Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music (2004). The recipient of a 2009 Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation, Cox is editor-at-large at Cabinet magazine. He has curated exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Kitchen, New Langton Arts, and G Fine Art Gallery. Cox is currently completing a conceptual and historical book about sound art, experimental music, and metaphysics. In 2015, he served as a Center panelist in Performance.