Date of Award
8-2025
Level of Access Assigned by Author
Open-Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Intermedia
First Committee Advisor
Bethany Engstrom
Second Committee Member
Susan Smith
Third Committee Member
Susan Pinette
Abstract
Sound is the word for the differing waves of pressure in the air as they enter the body and are perceived and interpreted by the brain. While the primary organ for receiving auditory phenomena in humans is the ear, these pressure waves are perceived by the entire body directly as a result of physical stimulation and through an innate emotional response. Phenomenological or embodied listening is the practice of being aware of these physical aspects of received sounds. This focus on the physical and emotional reactions these sounds produce is a way to better understand the nature of the sounds themselves and the ways in which these sounds affect lived experience. Studies have shown that listening to pleasant sounds can lead to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and stress, and increased quality of sleep as well as a myriad of positive emotional responses. On the contrary, listening to unpleasant sounds can lead to increases in these physiological factors, and can even result in harm to the body. Hearing and interpreting sounds is something that is done both passively and actively but as composer and sound scholar R. Murray Schafer points out, humans possess no “ear lids” to block out unwanted sounds. The work that this document recounts and presents originates from a recognition of the acoustic ecology around us as a way to catalogue significantly important sounds on a personal level. The world is a patchwork of perceptual fabrics, one of which is sound. One of the most significant sounds for transmitting complex social information is the sound of the human voice. Reciprocal exchange of dialogue contains a world of emotional and physiological responses to the listener, and this exchange of dialogue is crucial in the formation of culture, community, and social change. Inspired by the need to understand my local community and history more, I began conducting group interviews with artists and community members around the Orono area to learn more about the lived experience of the people around me. These conversations led to multiple creative collaborations that blended the use of field recording, sound studies, and participatory artworks. This pattern of group conversations to collaborative works brought me closer to multiple communities around the area; at times focusing directly on my cohort of fellow artists and students via community art projects and performances and eventually bringing me to focus directly with the Franco-American community with its connections to my own heritage. By focusing primarily on the documentation of lived experience and oral history, I have developed an artistic practice that is centered on creating community heirlooms which form both documents of dialogical exchange and cultural touchstones. Creative collaborations such as the works herein serve as platforms of self-expression for the collaborators and as records of community connection that hold historical, educational, and aesthetic value for the wider audience.
Recommended Citation
Michaud, Jacob D., "Sonic Threads and Sewn Voices: An Heirloom of Community Collaboration" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4277.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/4277