Sound of Thinking

Craig Dworkin teaches literary history and theory at the University of Utah. He is the author of Reading the Illegible, No Medium, Dictionary Poetics, and Radium of the Word: A Poetics of Materiality.

"Craig Dworkin’s new book is a rhizomatic atlas, a poetically mapped room of musical possibilities in which one door leads to a Wittgensteinian room and another onto a whale’s vagina. Whether you’re new to its imaginative possibilities or a long-time resident of its frontiers, The Sound of Thinking’s unique scholarship and textual virtuosity are a perfect introduction to the 'resonant paper' of conceptual music."

• Introduction: Definitions and caveatsKey works by John Cage; Éliane Radigue; Christopher DeLaurenti; Maryanne Amacher1. Alphabet: Arbitrary and aleatory organizationKey works by Gilius van Bergeijk; Erik Carlson; Jasna Veličković; Cathy Berberian; Luis Andriessen; Alvin Lucier; Luiz Henrique Yudo; Mieko Shiomi2. Birds: Nonhuman composersKey works by Ezra Pound; Pamela Z; Cassandra Miller3. Chess: Sonification of chessboardsKey works by John Cage; Atanas Bozdarov; Rodney Waschka; OPO; Francesco Ardan Dal Rì and Raul Masu; Michael Horgan; John White; Murielle Lucie-Clément4. Data: Sonification of dataKey works by George Brecht; Alexander Chen; Johannes Kreidler; Edith Viau; Cassie Thornton; Marko Ciciliani; Tae Hong Park; David Pocknee5. Errata: Chance and readymadesKey works by Marcel Duchamp6. Forgery: AppropriationKey works by Vito Acconci; Mekhitar Garabedian; Jane Pollard; Rosemary Brown; Mostly Other People Do the Killing7. Glue: Collage and appropriationKey works by Jim Hodges; Jennifer Walshe; Christopher Hobbs; Milan Knížák; Yasunao Tone; Maria Chavez; Nicolas Collins; Peter Ablinger; Lukas Foss; Rodney Graham; Katie Paterson; Todd Levin; Mauricio Kagel; Christian Marclay8. Helix: Sonification of geometryKey works by Cildo Meireles9. IPA: Deskilling and translations of speechKey works by Nate Wooley10. Jeux de Dés: Chance and gamesKey works by Robert Xavier Rodríguez; Tom Johnson; Hanne Darboven; Robert Ashley; Zexuan Qiao; Dave Soldier, Vitaly Komar, and Alexander Melamid; Percy Grainger11. Kittens: Appropriation and deskillingKey works by Cory Arcangel12. Long: Computational durationsKey works by James Whitehead (jliat); Roc Jiménez de Cisneros and Stephen Sharp; David Pocknee; Cassandra Miller; Rodney Graham; Richard Beaudoin; Bethany Collins; Seth Kim Cohen; Leif Inge; Joanna Bailie; John Cage; Jem Finer; Ian Melish; Erik Satie; La Monte Young13. Mute: Appropriation and erasureKey works by Samson Young; Weronika Trojanska; Luke Nickel14. Nature: Nonhuman composers, deskilled performances, systemsKey works by Raven Chacon; Dave Soldier; Sun Ra; Paul Panhuysen; Alvin Lucier; Nigel Helyer; Devin Maxwell15. Organs: AppropriationKey works by Eva-Maria Houben16. Portraits: Sonification, appropriation, erasureKey works by Clarence Barlow17. Q&A: Chance and gamesKey works by Ben Patterson18. Rocks: ChanceKey works by Mineko Grimmer19. Speech: Sonification of soundsKey works by Peter Ablinger; Jacob ter Veldhuis; Florent Ghys20. Tenebrae: Chance and systemsKey works by Toshi Ichiyanagi; György Ligeti; Yoko Ono21. Ut Pictura Musica: Sonification of imagesKey works by Philip Corner; Alvin Lucier; Charles Gaines; Sylvain Chauveau; Luiz Henrique Yudo22. Vaginas: Yep.Key works by Nam June Paik; Lauren Lesko; Miya Masaoka23. Weave: Sonification and readymadesKey works by Stine Janvin and Cory Arcangel; Christopher Hobbs; John White; Brian Eno24. Xylorimba: Appropriation and erasureKey works by Lance Massey; James Hoff25: Y-Intercept: SystemsKey works by Steve Reich26. Zone: SystemsKey works by La Monte Young and Tao G. Vrhovec SambolecAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex