Law with the Sound of Its Own Making
Mandic, D. 2021. Law with the Sound of Its Own Making. Law Text Culture. 24, pp. 515-549.
| Title | Law with the Sound of Its Own Making |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Mandic, D. |
| Abstract | This paper makes use of Robert Morris’s seminal artwork Box with the Sound of Its Own Making (1961) as an analogy and a structural device to put forward an understanding of law as a sonic artefact. Similar to this sculpture of sound, or sound of sculpture for that matter, it proposes that law although a statue-like formation, is nevertheless constituted by its own ever-lasting sounding that continuously shapes the spatial and temporal field in which it reverberates; and encloses subjects and objects with its concrete occurrence. By resisting law’s tendency to instrumentalise and objectify sound, it argues that such sonic quality cannot be reduced only to law’s own pronouncements and vocalisations, but it traces the sonic in beyond that what is ‘audible’ to law, or what an ear can hear. By drawing on the work of the French philosopher Michel Serres it demonstrates the relational qualities of sound, noise, and hearing as intrinsic qualities to the body and functioning of law. Approaching sound and its relation to law in this way not only brings forward questions about the ontological bearings of law, but it also allows to sound out novel epistemological passages for hearing, understanding, and thinking about law. |
| Keywords | Law, Statue, Sound, Box, Noise, Hearing, Sonic Artifact, Episteme, Michel Serres, Robert Morris |
| Journal | Law Text Culture |
| Journal citation | 24, pp. 515-549 |
| ISSN | 1322-9060 |
| Year | 2021 |
| Publisher | University of Wollongong |
| Publisher's version | File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Web address (URL) | https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol24/iss1/20 |