Establishing a Critical Framework for the Appraisal of “Noise” in Contemporary Sound Art with Specific Reference to the Practices of Yasunao Tone, Carsten Nicolai and Ryoji Ikeda

Yasunao Tone, Carsten Nicolai and Ryoji Ikeda are three practitioners representative of electronic music and sound-art practices that emerged in the 1990s where sound materials not normally considered musical, such as digital clicks, glitches and bursts of white noise, are prevalent. The origins of this body of work lie outside of the established music of academia and the mainstream popular music industry, and practitioners are often associated with particular record labels, including Mille Plateaux or Raster-Noton. While attempts have been made to coalesce these practices into a single unified genre, these assessments tend to critique work mainly in technological terms.

In contrast, this thesis draws out deeper philosophical concerns relevant to these practices through a critical analysis of materials produced by and about these practitioners, including commercial releases, works, writings and interviews. What emerges from this is that Heidegger’s notion of truth as “revealing” and Derrida’s critique of phonocentrism can provide a clearer philosophical framework for a consideration of this body of work. This thesis argues that these practices reflect a wider cultural shift away from the notion of “value” as something quantified, abstract and intrinsic, toward one concerned with the qualitative, contextual and extrinsic, and that these practices are forms of conceptual sound art that challenge both the notion of “absolute” music and the prevailing political-economic structures.