Wolf Tones

Book excerpt: A multidisciplinary reader on an acoustic phenomenon conventionally deemed undesirable When a bowed stringed instrument is played, the vibrations of certain notes can resonate at the same frequency as the vibrations of the instrument itself. The dissonant effect that results is referred to as a "wolf tone," for its howl, and is almost universally characterized as an unpleasant deviance. For Maximilian Goldfarb, Nancy Shaver and Sterrett Smith, however, the wolf tone has come to serve as a productive analogy for describing forces at work in a visual field and a model for their ongoing collaboration, Wolf Tones. Here, the artists present an orchestrated cacophony of images from their individual and collaborative practices alongside texts by contributors from the realms of music and sound, art, poetry, art criticism and architecture. Referencing landscape, temporality, sonic surpluses, improvisation, Éliane Radigue's Naldjorlakand more, this book addresses the artists' collaboration as well as the acoustic phenomenon itself, reimagining the wolf tone as something to be celebrated.