Dissolving Dualities: Onto-epistemological Implications of Ecological Sound Art

This paper discusses the arts practice that emerged during the AHRC funded research project ‘Landscape Quartet: Creative Practice and Philosophical Reflexion in Natural Environments’ (2012–2014). The introduction covers the project's eco-critical basis, practical methodologies developed during it (including the roles of experimentation and improvisation), and the particular epistemological value of practice-led research in this context. A broader theoretical discussion then outlines how non-representational theory and Tim Ingold's concept of dwelling help to expand and clarify the argument for participative environmental arts practice. These ideas are then developed through a series of examples and a conceptual approach based on notions of working with, of, and for the environment. It concludes by considering the multifaceted ontological significance of experiences of ecological arts practice, directly, as an in situ performer on the one hand, and with subsequent artefacts, performances and installations removed from the original site, on the other