Aural ecology: a categorical investigation in self-organizing systems

Abstract

In this work we explain the philosophical analysis of the modal categories oriented toward the study and understanding of self-organizing systems showing complexity. For this, we focus our research in the area of ecology and, more specifically, in the field of aural ecology, that is, in the study of the sounds that make up ecosystems. The modal categories developed here are, firstly, «repertoriality», referring to the coherence and internal stability of any self-organizing system; then, «dispositionality», or the experimentation and variation inherent in these systems and, finally, the «landscape», regarding what is really effective, what is given. This conjunction of categories leads us to explore the modal system of necessity-contingency-possibility-impossibility which, applied to sound studies, becomes the game of signals-redundancy-noise-silence. These categories, applied to real instances found in natural environments, help us to understand the way Heraclitus’s becoming is revealed in every ecosystem. Finally, we discover how the categorical investigation of soundscapes provides us with complex information about the evolutionary behaviour and the state of conservation of these systems.