Making the body all ears: Sonolope and a somatic practice of really listening

Movement sonification is an ongoing area of artistic research attracting the interest of musicians, technologists and movement practitioners. Similarly, mobile phones are frequently used in artistic contexts. By discussing Sonolope, a mobile phone application that enables the production of quadrophonic sound through the user’s movement in the space, this article aims to contribute to existing scholarship by examining the experience of sound and movement co-production in relation to the sensory modalities that underpin mobile phone use and through a set of philosophical accounts that focus on listening. It will be argued that Sonolope, as well as similar systems of movement sonification, can offer a third category of experience and analysis that transcends the existing binaries between external appearance and internal sensation, image and proprioception. It is thus intended to examine sound as an integral part of the user’s experience within movement sonification, and position such an experience in relation to somatic practice, mobile phone use and a wider philosophical project of developing a ‘sonorous subject’.