Hörweite als räumliches Phänomen bezeichnete lange Zeit jene Distanz, innerhalb welcher ein akustisches Signal eindeutig wahrgenommen werden konnte. Zunehmende sinnliche institutionalisierung veränderte dieses spezifisch "räumlich-akustische" Phänomen in ein "real-abstraktes". Durch Radio, Tonband, Film, TV etc. befindet sich zwar der vermittelnde in Hörweite des Rezipienten, dieser aber nicht in derjenigen des Ersteren. (Eine Ausnahme bildet der telefonische Kontakt, der in jede Richtung möglich ist.) Die Einwegkommunikation ist festgesetzt, die Vermittlung verläuft institutionalisiert. Hörweite existiert nunmehr als Metaphänomen, und somit exemplarisch für Kommunikationsrituale. Das englische Wort "Sound" bedeutet nebenbei bemerkt auch "unversehrt, ungestört, fehlerfrei" der Prozeß schließt sich mit Schallgeschwindigkeit

"Earshot as spatial phenomenon used to define the specific distance within which an acoustic signal could be perceived and identified . Increasing institutionalization of our senses changed this specifically "spatial-acoustic " phenomenon into a " real-abstract " one. Perceiving media like radio, tape, film, TV etc. the sender is within earshot of the recipient but this is not the case vice versa (an exception is the telephone which is bi-directional). One-way-communication is prescribed, the mediating process is institutionalized.... Earshot does only exist as a meta-phaenomen and thus is exemplary for communication rituals. By the way: the english word "sound" also means "intact, unimpaired, error-free". The process closes with the speed of sound."

"In practice both the closeness and the participation suggested by radio are, strictly speaking, illusions. The impossibility of communication, of contact via the media, is illustrated by Herwig Kemperer on the tape In Hoerweite. The words, 'I am within sound....' are followed by a long silence. With dramatic srupulousness Kemperer's tape points to the tragedy of sound media: no matter how perfectly the suggestion of acoustic presence and proximity can be simulated, it remains a model, not a reality. ' I am within hearing range', but invisible and absent. Thus, the absurdity of a medium that promises closer relations and communication while at the same time exposes how far we, as lonely listeners, are removed from one another."
Max Bruinsma: Notes of a Listener in: Sound by Artists. Edited by Dan Lander and Micah Lexier. Published by Art Metropole and Walter Phillips Gallery, Toronto, Banff. 1990

This piece was published in the MAG Magazin.

Related Links:
http://www.maxbruinsma.nl/index1.html?listener.html