bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
P14.12 Gyriform infiltration as imaging biomarker for adult diffuse astrocytic glioma, IDH wildtype, with molecular features of glioblastoma
Authors: Mesny E , Barritault M , Izquierdo C , Poncet D , d’Hombres A , Guyotat J , Jouanneau E , Ameli R , Honnorat J , Meyronet D , Ducray F
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Diffuse astrocytic gliomas, IDH wildtype, with molecular features of glioblastoma (molecular glioblastomas) are associated with a poor prognosis. We previously found that these tumors frequently display gyriform infiltration, defined as areas of elective cortical hypersignal on MRI FLAIR sequence. The objective of the present study was to assess the diagnostic value of gyriform infiltration as an imaging marker for these tumors.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

MRI scans from 430 patients with newly diagnosed glioma (molecular glioblastoma n = 31, IDH wildtype glioblastoma n = 298, IDH-mutant astrocytoma n = 50, IDH-mutant and 1p19q codeleted oligodendroglioma n= 51) were evaluated for the presence of a gyriform infiltration by 2 independent reviewers. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated to assess the performance of the presence of a gyriform infiltration for identifying molecular glioblastoma.

RESULTS

A gyriform infiltration was observed in 16/31 (52%) patients with a molecular glioblastoma, 40/298 (13%) patients with an IDH-wildtype glioblastoma but in none of the patients with an IDH-mutant astrocytomas or an IDH-mutant and 1p19q codeleted oligodendroglioma. Among the 56 patients with a gyriform infiltration, 54 patients had an IDH wildtype pTERT mutant glioma and 2 an IDH wildtype pTERT wildtype glioma. Interrater agreement was good (κ= 0.68, P < 0.001). Specificity, sensitivity, PPV and NPV of the presence of a gyriform infiltration for the diagnosis of molecular glioblastoma were 90%, 29%, 52% and 96% and for the diagnosis of an IDHwt pTERT mutant glioma were 97%, 15%, 96% and 20%. The presence of a gyriform infiltration was associated with a worse prognosis in the entire cohort (13.6 months vs 29.3 months, P = .001).

CONCLUSION

Gyriform infiltration is a specific imaging marker of molecular glioblastomas and IDH wildtype pTERT mutant diffuse gliomas.
P14.13 Severe hematological toxicity during chemoradiation for glioblastoma: Identification of clinical and pharmacological risk factors and consequences for the individual patient
Authors: Grun N , den Otter C A , Sintemaartensdijk M , Osinga J , van den Elzen F E L , van der Vegt A N , de Haan J , Bruynzeel A M E , van Linde M E , Postma T J , Schuur M , de Witt Hamer P C , De Vos F Y F L , Verhoeff J J C , Jongen J L M , Lissenberg-witte B I , Kouwenhoven M C M
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Besides early tumour progression, standard first-line radiation with concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide in de novo glioblastoma patients is abrogated frequently by severe haematological toxicity. This leads to treatment delays with unknown effect on efficacy and to more hospital visits with increased disease burden. In the present study, we identified clinical and pharmacological risk factors for temozolomide induced severe hematological toxicity. Furthermore, we describe the burden of toxicity for patients and evaluate the effect of severe toxicity on prognosis.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study of adult patients with a histological confirmed glioblastoma (n=363), treated with standard treatment regimen at the Brain Tumor Center Amsterdam between 2000 and -2020. Severe haematological toxicity was defined as a CTCAE (version 5.0) grade ≥3. We used Pearson Chi-Square test to analyze differences in patient characteristics between the groups (no vs. severe toxicity) and paired samples T- Test to analyze fluctuations in cell counts. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify patient- and treatment characteristics associated with severe hematological toxicity. Cox Proportional Hazards models were used to estimate Hazard Ratio’s for the association between survival and severe hematological toxicity.

RESULTS

Female gender (OR 8.05, 95%CI 2.96–21.89, p<0.001) and older age (age > 70 years; OR 2.44, 95%CI 1.12–5.31, p=0.025) were independent risk factors for severe toxicity. Concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide was discontinued in respectively 56% and 35% of the patients. In general, patients with severe hematological toxicity had a treatment delay of 22 ± 48 days. Of all patients with severe hematological toxicity during chemoradiation, 96% developed toxicity after ≥4 weeks of treatment (p<0.001). Females who received highest temozolomide-doses (4th quartile) had a longer survival than females with low cumulative temozolomide doses (1st quartile). Patients, who developed severe toxicity had much more hospital visits (20; range 12–26), and were admitted more frequently to the hospital. Severe haematological toxicity was not related to survival (HR 1.04; 95%CI 0.74–1.45).

CONCLUSION

Female gender and age >70 years are risk factors for severe hematological toxicity. Severe hematological toxicity relates to temozolomide exposure and results in a significant treatment burden for patients. Low temozolomide exposure results in decreased survival. Patient tailored therapy may result in better treatment outcomes.
P14.40 Trends in distribution of glioblastoma care and patient’s travel distance; results from the Dutch Brain Tumor Registry
Authors: De Swart M E , Ho V K Y , Lagerwaard F J , Brandsma D , Broen M P , French P , Gijtenbeek A , Geurts M , Hanse M C J , Idema B , Klein M , Koekkoek J A F , Polman S K , Samuels C W , Seute T , Sijben A E J , Smits M , Vos M J , Walenkamp A M E , Wesseling P , De Witt Hamer P C , Kouwenhoven M C M
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Over the past years, increasing worldwide attention towards centralization of complex cancer care has been pursued as higher volume centers have shown improved outcomes. Changes in distribution of care and the impact on travel distance in glioblastoma patients have not been determined yet. In this study, we determine trends in distribution of glioblastoma care in the Netherlands over the last three decades and assess whether the observed trends affected travel distance for individual patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Data were obtained from the Dutch Brain Tumor Registry from 1989 to 2018. All glioblastoma patients (≥18 years) were included for analysis. Patients, neurosurgical centers and radiotherapy centers were geocoded. Data were analyzed in six time intervals of 5 years. High volume hospitals were defined as >50 cases per year. Travel distance was examined in two categories, ≤60km and >60km respectively. Trend analyses for proportions were used to analyze hospital volume changes and travel distances.

RESULTS

A total of 16.477 glioblastoma patients were registered, with an annual increase from 203 patients in 1989 to 917 patients in 2018. Neurosurgical centers increased from 16 to 17 and for radiotherapy from 19 to 22 centers between 1989–1993 and 2014–2018. Mean neurosurgical- and radiotherapy center volumes increased from 12 to 39 (P=0.025) and 7 to 27 (P=0.025) patients per hospital per year from 1989–1993 to 2014–2018. High volume neurosurgical centers were observed since 2004, and an increased number of patients were treated in these centers, 27.8%, 52.6% and 64.1% in the time periods 2004–2008, 2009–2013, and 2014–2018 (P<0.001). High volume radiology centers were observed since 2009, and 15.0% and 27.3% of patients were treated in these centers in the time periods 2009–2013 and 2014–2018 (P<0.001). Patients with a travel distance >60km to the neurosurgical center reduced from 15.8% to 13.2% (P=0.033). Travel distance >60km to the radiotherapy center did not reduce significantly (10.4% to 8.8%, P=0.601).

CONCLUSION

An increasing number of glioblastoma patients were differentially treated in high volume neurosurgery and radiotherapy centers. The observation that this did not translate into increased travel distances, indicates accessible specialized Neuro-Oncology care for glioblastoma patients in The Netherlands.
P14.57 WHO grade II and III meningioma: a large mono-institutional retrospective series
Authors: Simonetti G , Gaviani P , Farinotti M , Legnani F , Pollo B , Pinzi V , Botturi A , Redaelli V , Silvani A
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Meningiomas are usually considered benign lesions, however a part of them can show very aggressive behavior with tendency to metastasize. This subgroup is known as high-grade meningiomas (HGM). Due to the rarity of the disease, effective medical treatments are lacking, especially at the time of recurrence. We aim to describe the clinical, radiological and molecular features of a large population of HGM diagnosed between 2010 and 2018. The secondary aim was to evaluate survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We collected clinical and survival data from primitive WHO grade II and III meningioma patients treated at Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta from January 2010 to December 2018. Records were collected on a web-based platform (Microsoft Excel) that was customized for this study. The database, contained epidemiological, diagnostic (radiological and histological/molecular), surgical, therapeutic and recurrence information, as well as survival data.

RESULTS

183 patients (105 females and 78 males), with median age of 58 years (25–88), were included; 168 were atypical, 12 anaplastic, 3 rhabdoid. Overall, m-PFS was 4.2 years, and m-OS was 10.3 years. Gross-total resection had a 5-year survival rate of 95% compared with subtotal/partial resection (86% and 67%) (p=0.002). Higher expression of Ki-67/MIB-1 seems associated with higher risk of death (HR:1.06 with 95% CI, 1.00–1.12, p=0.03). No statistically significant differences were seen in survival between the group managed with a wait-and-see strategy vs the group treated with RT/SRS while a difference on PFS was seen (4.1 years vs 5.2 years p=0.03). After second recurrence, the most employed treatments were systemic therapies with a very limited effect on disease control.

CONCLUSION

Data confirmed the aggressive behavior of HGM. The extent of resection seems to correlate with a favorable outcome regardless histological subtypes. The role of RT/SRS remains controversial, with no statistically significant impact on OS but a possible role on PFS. At relapse, no chemotherapies are able to achieve disease control and recurrent HGM remains the real challenge for future research, focusing on biological/molecular predictors in order to achieve a patient-tailored treatment.This retrospective study allowed to analyzed the largest national recent series of aggressive meningiomas with the purpose of identify relevant outcome measures for future prospective studies. Our findings could be important to give a snapshot of the current attitude to treat aggressive meningiomas but also to inspire national and international collaboration in order to provide evidence-based management strategies trying to obtain a standard of care.
P14.77 Efficacy and safety of Tumor-Treating Fields associated with Depatux M and metronomic temozolomide for recurrent glioblastoma: a case-report
Authors: Pellerino A , Bruno F , Muscolino E , Rudà R , Soffietti R
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Patients with glioblastoma (GBM) have a poor prognosis following an extensive resection, radiotherapy (RT) and concomitant/adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ). Once GBM progresses after SOC, lomustine is the standard second-line treatment, while rechallenge with TMZ may be employed in selected patients with methylated promoter of MGMT, and bevacizumab is reserved for patients with extensive edema and need for steroids. New treatment modalities have been investigated at first recurrence, including alternating electric fields (TTFields) or antibody direct against epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), such as depatuximab mafodontin (ABT-414, Depatux-M), that have shown some activity in terms of disease control and progression-free survival (PFS).

CLINICAL PRESENTATION

In September 2018, a 38 year-old man developed reduced strength in left upper limb and daily focal seizures. MRI showed an enhancing right fronto-temporal lesion which was subtotally removed with a diagnosis of glioblastoma (IDH 1/2 wild type, MGMT methylated - 40%, EGFR amplified, EGFRvIII positive). As the patient had a poor KPS (50), in October 2018 a hypofractionated RT (DFT 40 Gy/15 fractions) with concomitant TMZ (140 mg/day) was performed, followed by adjuvant standard TMZ (340 mg/day); however, chemotherapy was stopped after 3 cycles due to local progression on MRI coupled with strength worsening, increased seizure frequency, and need for steroids. Pseudoprogression was ruled out due to tumor growth out of the field of RT. Based on the high level of methylation of the MGMT promoter and EGFR amplification, a combined treatment with metronomic TMZ (100 mg/day continuously) plus Depatux-M (1.25 mg/kg every 2 weeks) was started (February 2019), but a brain MRI performed after 3 months of treatment displayed no significant changes on both MRI and neurological status. At this time point (May 2019) TTFields treatment was added. An initial decrease of tumor size was observed on MRI after 5 months, while a reduction of tumor size more than 90% has been progressively achieved after 1 year of treatment (April 2020). Moreover, a seizure-free status was observed without changing the antiepileptic medication. The patient developed a grade 3 ocular side effect (CTCAE version 5.0) with photophobia, blurred vision, foreign body sensation in the eyes after 6 months of treatment, which improved after dose delays and dose reduction of Depatux-M. The patient is still alive, and free of progression after 30 months and 25 months from diagnosis and first recurrence, respectively.

CONCLUSION

To our knowledge, this is the first report of a recurrent GBM with a significant and long-lasting neuroradiological response following a combined treatment with TTFields, Depatux-M, and intensified schedule of TMZ. A synergistic effect of TTFields with compounds interfering with the microtubular system should be further investigated.
P14.81 Brain metastases of lung adenocarcinoma - Clinicopathological profile and outcomes of a single-centre
Authors: Sousa M J , Basto R , Magalhães J C , Costa C , Garcia R , Domingues I , Jesus E , Sousa G
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Brain metastases (BM) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are considered a major determinant of overall survival (OS). Historically, surgical resection (SR), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), or/and whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) followed by chemotherapy has been the treatment modalities for BM from lung adenocarcinoma. Recent insights into the biology of adenocarcinoma have led to a wealth of novel therapies, including tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Here, we review the pattern of brain metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma patients and management strategies in our centre.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We performed a single-centre retrospective analysis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma and BM between 2017–2020. Data were collected from electronic medical records, including clinical and histopathological features and outcomes. Survival curves were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test.

RESULTS

We identified 29 patients, 65% male, median age 65 years (range 38–84); 55% ECOG PS 0–1; 59% smokers; 55% had extracranial metastases (ECM) and 66% were symptomatic, 24% were EGFR mutated, the frequency of ALK rearrangement was 14%, in 14% the molecular testing was not performed. We treated 59% with WBRT, 12% with SRS, 11% with SR+WBRT and 4% with SR+SRS; 14% were referred for palliative care. Clinical deterioration during local therapy was observed in 32% of the patients and, consequently, they haven’t undergone systemic treatment. After local treatment, 26% received chemotherapy (CT) and 28% received TKIs therapy. Median OS (mOS) was 11.3 months (95% CI 2.4–20.3) for the CT subgroup; mOS for the TKIs subgroup was not reached, but the 1-year survival rate was 67%.

CONCLUSION

BM confers a worse prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients. Currently, targeted systemic treatments in patients with driver mutations improve survival and have demonstrated efficacy in lung adenocarcinoma metastatic to the brain. Further research is needed to find better treatments for BM in NSCLC patients with no driver mutations.
P16.11 Vitamin C levels and the hypoxic pathway in human glioma tissues
Authors: Burgess E R , Crake R L I , Phillips E , Morrin H R , Royds J A , Vissers M C M , Robinson B A , Dachs G U
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Gliomas are the most common brain cancer and survival is poor, with 11–15 months for high-grade glioblastoma patients, despite treatment. Gliomas are hypoxic tumours, which increases with tumour grade. Under hypoxia, the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF) accumulates and upregulates expression of genes involved in tumour development and progression. HIF-1 levels and activity are controlled by HIF hydroxylases which target HIF-1α for degradation and prevent co-activation. HIF hydroxylases are part of the 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG)-dependent dioxygenase enzyme family, that require 2-OG and oxygen as substrates and ascorbate and iron as co-factors. The role of ascorbate in regulating the hypoxic pathway in cancer is of interest, with previous research showing reduced HIF pathway activity with increasing tumour ascorbate levels. Brain tissue has one of the highest ascorbate levels in the body, and is one of the last to become depleted under deficiency, indicating an important role for ascorbate in this tissue. One previous study has analysed ascorbate levels in 11 human glioblastoma patients, and showed lower ascorbate in tumour tissue compared to normal brain tissue. There have been no studies investigating the relationship between ascorbate levels and the hypoxic pathway in human glioma tissues.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Human glioma tissues (n = 39), obtained from the Cancer Society Tissue Bank Christchurch (ethics approval H19/163), were processed for ascorbate and hypoxic pathway proteins (HIF-1α, CA-IX, BNIP3, HKII, GLUT1 and VEGF). Ascorbate levels were quantified by HPLC-ED, and proteins were measured by Western blotting and ELISA. Spearman’s correlations were used to identify relationships between ascorbate and HIF pathway proteins.

RESULTS

Of the samples, 64% were GBM. Ascorbate was significantly lower in GBM compared to low-grade gliomas (p = 0.04). VEGF was significantly higher in GBM compared to astrocytomas (p = 0.01). Increased tumour ascorbate was associated with lower VEGF and CA-IX proteins. HIF-1α and BNIP3 protein were positively associated, and VEGF was positively associated with HKII and CA-IX. VEGF inversely associated with BNIP3, and CA-IX inversely associated with HKII. The hypoxic pathway score (calculated from protein levels of members of the hypoxic pathway) was reduced in tumours with higher ascorbate but this did not reach significance (p = 0.2).

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to show that ascorbate levels were reduced in high-grade gliomas compared to low-grade. Some members of the hypoxic pathway were associated with ascorbate levels. The overall hypoxic pathway score did not significantly correlate with ascorbate and increased numbers of samples are required to confirm any associations. Other variables, such as IDH-1 mutation status of the tumours may affect the correlation and will be analysed next.
P16.12 Proangiogenic effect of fibroblast activation protein positive stromal cells derived from human glioblastomas
Authors: Balaziova E , Vymola P , Hrabal P , Mateu R , Tomas R , Netuka D , Zemanova Z , Svobodova K , Sedo A , Busek P
Published: September 2021

BACKGROUND

Increased expression of fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is characteristic for several cancer types including human glioblastomas (GBM). FAP is expressed on both cancer as well as stromal cells which were demonstrated in extracranial tumors to maintain a microenvironment permissive for tumor growth and thus to contribute to tumor progression. FAP is considered a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target and several approaches for its targeting have been recently developed. In this work, we investigated the role of FAP+ stromal cells in glioblastoma angiogenesis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Expression of FAP and other phenotypic markers was assessed by immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry. FAP+ stromal cells and primary microvascular endothelial cells were isolated using magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS). Genetic aberrations were assayed by comparative genomic hybridization/single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis. Angiogenesis was evaluated using a 3D spheroid-based sprouting assay and a chorioallantoic membrane assay. A cytokine array was used to analyze soluble mediators released by FAP+ stromal cells.

RESULTS

FAP+ stromal cells were predominantly localized around activated CD105+ endothelial cells and their quantity positively correlated with glioblastoma vascularization. FAP+ stromal cells derived from human GBMs had a mesenchymal phenotype, were non-tumorigenic and in most cases lacked cytogenetic aberrations characteristic of GBMs. Conditioned media derived from FAP+ stromal cells induced angiogenic sprouting of both macrovascular HUVEC as well as microvascular primary endothelial cells derived from human GBMs. In a chorioallantoic membrane assay, admixture of FAP+ stromal cells to glioma cells was associated with increased angiogenesis and more frequent occurrence of hemorrhages. Cytokine array revealed a significant disbalance between several proangiogenic and antiangiogenic mediators compared to normal pericytes, and an increased Angiopoietin 2/1 ratio in conditioned media from FAP+ stromal cells.

CONCLUSION

Our results bring new evidence that GBM associated FAP+ stromal cell promote angiogenesis by changing the balance between proangiogenic and antiangiogenic mediators and thus they may contribute to glioblastoma progression.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Supported by Progres Q28/1LFUK and grant LM2015064 of the EATRIS-CZ and the Center for Tumor Ecology (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000785).
Witnessing Space
Authors: Polli Andrea
Published: September 2021

Significant advances in scientific understanding in the twentieth century pointed to a convergence of time and space, known as SpaceTime. Related scientific discoveries related to the nature of the cosmos invoked sound not only metaphorically but quite literally. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity changed the position of an observer from neutral to active. This position is consistent with an embodied experience of sound. Simultaneous to these scientific advances, developments in recording and production technologies gave artists the tools to explore sound in space, and to create in the intersectional spaces between art, geography, astronomy, and other sciences. In addition R. Murray Schafer, Hildegard Westerkamp, and others created a contemporary sound art movement that highlights the presence of the listener as inextricable to a soundscape experience. Many sound artists have created compelling immersive experiences for listeners through the audification and sonification of spatial data. Such works raise important questions: if sonic experience of space is embodied, how can space be understood through sound, especially that which is scaled much larger or smaller or of a duration much shorter or longer than that which we can experience with our bodies? How do affect, mood, and emotion influence our embodied understanding of sound in space? In this introductory chapter to this volume’s section on space and sound art, the author’s embodied experiences and interactions with scientists in Antarctica will serve as a background to a personal meditation on sound and space on a human, cosmic, and micro-cosmic scale.
Sound and Wonder
Authors: Lee Ray
Published: September 2021

Starting by describing his experience of becoming lost in wonder at the Bakken Museum of Electricity and Life in Minneapolis, in this chapter the artist Ray Lee explores his fascination with the state of wonderment. Referencing his internationally touring sound art works Siren and The Ethometric Museum he reviews the strategies that he has used to attempt to create a sense of wonder, and why this has become both a valuable aspect of his practice and a distinctive part of the audience experience. Throughout the history of science wonder has been a driving force for discovery, yet the sublime, with its suggestion of the spiritual, has more often been used to describe the experience of art. The chapter looks at how wonder creates a sense of creative uncertainty, de Certeau’s ‘rift in time’ or, as Bataille puts it, a state of ‘intolerable non-knowledge, which has no other way out other than ecstasy’.
Sound and Thing
Authors: Evens Aden
Published: September 2021

‘Sound and Thing’ examines the tensions between the idea of a thing as stable, durable, locatable, and weighty versus the notion of sound as ephemeral, eventual, diffuse, and dematerialized. Considering recordings that focus on capturing the sounds of things (Resonance FM, ‘One Hour As ….’), composers and sound theorists who attempt to pin down the thingness of a sound (David Dunn, Pierre Schaeffer, Salomé Voegelin), and philosophers who articulate the surprisingly complex dynamics of things (Martin Heidegger, Dr. Seuss), this essay offers an uneasy rapprochement between sound and thing. But if sounds, finally, are things, they exhibit an unusual and dynamic thingness, a sonic vitalism, that resists the positivism of our age and of our leading technologies.
Sacrificial Floors and Tables
Authors: Richards John
Published: September 2021

A floor or table strewn with beer cans, toys, bits of scrap metal, ceramic bowls, miscellaneous electronics, and wires: a collection of things to make sound. Instrument and sound object have been sacrificed for a music of things. DIY electronic music and maker communities have challenged what sound is made with and to what end. Within these communities, the sacredness of the musical instrument has been debunked. Percussion is examined in relation to a music of things and object-orientated performance, and the performance-table is also viewed in the context of experimental sound and performance works. In this chapter George Brecht’s The Cabinet and readymade actions, and the performance-tables of Keith Rowe and Adam Bohman are illustrated. In addition, the work of Tetsuya Umeda is used to demonstrate performance-installation where making and unmaking are seen as critical parts of performance.
The unreliable mediator
Authors: Prior David
Published: September 2021

Within the array of sounding devices that have been deployed in the making of sound art, the speaker has a special status. Although not ubiquitous, the extent of the speaker’s influence on sound art cannot be underestimated, and yet for many artists the speaker remains an obstinate, unyielding thing, acknowledged for its function but not embraced for its form. Sound art has frequently positioned itself within the discourse of contemporary sculpture and installation art and, as such, both the affordances of sound itself and the materials of its technical apparatus need to be understood as different dimensions of what constitutes its medium. This brief survey of the uses of speakers in sound art uses Lucier’s Music on a Long Thin Wire as a case study in which the speaker is utilized not just for its ability to convey sonic meaning generated elsewhere but also as a thing in its own right.
The Ding in Itself
Authors: Mowitt John
Published: September 2021

Based on an extended reading of John Cage’s composition Water Walk as performed on the US television programme I’ve Got a Secret, the matter of what makes sound art, sound art is presented in this chapter in theoretical terms. Specifically, sound art is work that poses the question—what is a thing?—using the expressive resources (words, sounds, images, gestures) at the artist’s disposal. Starting with two things presented in Water Walk—a pressure cooker that sounds, and radios that sound differently—this chapter suggests how this presentation invites comparison with the philosophical treatment of ‘things’ to be found in the work of Kant (especially his distinction between noumenal and phenomenal things) Heidegger and Agamben. The comparison is shown to establish that what could be called sound art effectively drowns out the difference between art and theory. Put differently, sound art obliges us to hearken to the question sound ‘itself’ presents.
Sound is Silence
Authors: Hainge Greg
Published: September 2021

This chapter investigates the possibility of talking about the fabric of sound. The claim is made that sound has no fabric of its own and is extended only through other sites and media. It is suggested, however, that we might talk about sound not as a fabric but as un fabriquer, a term that brings with it something of the asubjective, relational, and operational nature of sound. When thinking through this in terms of sound art, greater complexity arises since a human subject is necessarily interpolated into the relation, and the fabric of sound (which is to say its ontology) must be thought of from a phenomenological perspective. To do this, I use the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, in particular his concept of a chiasmic relation out of which the perceptible world is produced as what he terms ‘the flesh of the world’. I contend that this concept, as outlined in his late philosophy, is problematic because it is hard to see how it can lead to the kind of experiential intersubjectivity that it argues for. This argument is unpacked through a consideration of the physiological phenomenon of otoacoustic emissions before going on to argue that art, and in this specific case sound art, may provide a solution to the conundrum of how such necessary intersubjectivity can arise, a suggestion that is prosecuted via a consideration of Jacob Kirkegaard’s Labyrinthitis, a work of sound art constructed out of otoacoustic emissions.
Against a Falling Fabric
Authors: Kim-Cohen Seth
Published: September 2021

This chapter calls into question the celebratory use of certain adjectives typically applied to sound: ephemeral, immersive, remote, ineffable. Instead, these descriptions are attached to their less celebratory applications in the workings of neoliberalism: in contemporary warfare, the ubiquity of debt, and the unfettered movement of capital (but not peoples) known as ‘globalism’. We might refer to these qualities of neoliberalism as ‘acousmatic’, thereby connecting sound practice to the clandestine operations of contemporary economic logic and logistics. Examining sound works by the artists Samson Young and Matthieu Saladin, sound’s relationship to these adjectives is reimagined, not as a confirmation of sound’s privileges, but as a passage to a critical position.
Materiality
Authors: McKinnon Dugal
Published: September 2021

This chapter offers an examination of sonic materiality from a perspective strongly influenced by various strands of contemporary ontology, in particular Graham Harman’s object oriented ontology, Karen Barad’s agential realism, and Timothy Morton’s synthesis of sundry speculative realist approaches. The core argument of the chapter, supported by aspects of each of the theorists just mentioned, is that sound exists as part of the energetic entanglement of objects, a ‘hyper-object’ (Morton) established in ‘intra-action’ (Barad), which reveals the otherwise withdrawn (Harman) qualities and propensities of these multiple participants, including the human auditor and the medium which propagates sound. In this way, sound can be described as a kind of fabric, both ‘something made’ (fabricated) and made of the interweave of multiple elements.
Fukushima
Authors: Houdart Sophie
Published: September 2021

In places such as Fukushima that have been contaminated after a nuclear disaster, attesting to the presence of radioactivity is a challenge for the people there, who all know that one cannot touch, nor see, nor smell it. Nevertheless, since 2011, they have had to learn how to cohabit with radionuclides by—among other means—measuring their environment and every single item that populates it. Although when talking about a nuclear disaster, one often imagines the kind of ‘crackle’ sound produced by Geiger counters, life in the Fukushima region is strangely soundless. Most of the time, Geiger counters are calibrated to visualize an amount of rays via numbers, but by choice they are set to mute mode. This silence is echoed by the peculiar sound of deserted areas. Looking back over the history of the Geiger counter and ethnographical depictions, it will try to grasp and render the texture of sites such as these that force us as human beings to confront this deficiency in our senses.
Soundfullessness
Authors: Migone Christof
Published: September 2021

Are the predictable associations between sound and darkness, night and music, based solely on the ability of the aural sense to focus thanks to a reduction of the visible field? Even if the answer lies in a correlation between physical manifestation and physiological adaptation, the socio-cultural scaffolding that stems from this simple fact is of interest. Sites of investigation: John Oswald’s pitch black performances; Studio 303’s Noises from the Dark series; Adrian Piper’s Untitled Performance at Max’s Kansas City; Andre Lepecki’s (and by extension Fred Moten’s) ‘shared aurality’ active in the quartet of darkness/blackness/potentiality/freedom; Derek Jarman’s Blue and, especially, Akira Mizuta Lippit’s analysis of the film where sound becomes image and image becomes sound; the use of darkness at the famed 1938 International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris; the Saydnaya Military Prison; Guy Debord’s Hurlements en faveur de Sade; amongst others. Is sound necessarily of the dark, from the dark, in the dark? Eclipses and shadows, caves and caverns are moments and sites where and when sounds thrive, or at least are invoked and conjured. How does the night sound? Merleau-Ponty begins to answer the question by depicting the night as generator of a different kind of space, one that ‘has no outlines; … is pure depth without foreground or background, without surfaces and without any distance separating it from me’. The implications on sound of the inside/outside blur, the porous muddle, are that its sensorial properties have ontological consequences.
Last breath, Sensing Life
Authors: Bulut Zeynep
Published: September 2021

Drawing on electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s installation Last Breath (2012), this chapter explores the sonic sensibility of life. It discusses (un)knowing and (dis)locating a body through sound, sensing the plasticity of life through assembled breath and voice, and the urge for insisting on life. The chapter looks at (1) Lozano-Hemmer’s aesthetics and related works, (2) conceptions of life as informed by nineteenth-century German Romanticism and twentieth-century continental and materialist philosophies, (3) preservation and mobility of sound via sound recording technologies, (4) voice as a biometric portrait, and (5) the capacity of inanimate things for expression.
Danfo
Authors: Ogboh Emeka
Published: September 2021

This chapter explores the iconic symbol of Lagos as a space that inspires sound, a space to record, and a space in which to install sound within the context of my sound art practice. Such an exploration is inextricably tied to the external and internal dynamics of the operation of the Danfo bus and the key components that congregate to generate and dissipate the sounds of this mobile theatre. These include the bus stations, the bus driver, the bus conductor, the passengers, and the itinerant hawkers. The chapter will be discuss these characters and space in relation to my practice and recordings, with a particular interest in how these characters interact, utilize, generate, and transform sounds within and outside the Danfo, and how this ensemble has inspired me to transmit, overlay, mix, and combine the Danfo sounds and visuals in my art practice.
Minor Acoustics
Authors: LaBelle Brandon
Published: September 2021

The essay explores sound as a dynamic medium for facilitating and enabling unique forms of relationality. Specifically, this leads to investigating how sound contributes to socially engaged and sited art work, affording involvement in radical forms of sharing and affinity. From nonhuman species to abandoned buildings, found matter to strange publics, practices of sound art often steer us towards experimental forms of relationality, where experiences of contact are elaborated beyond the strictly social. Such an auditory position may challenge and extend a politics of identity and community, shifting the dominant discourses of social recognition. Following such relational views, sound is underscored as a means for enriching the complexity of what it means to live together in this global environment.
A Social Sonic Paradigm
Authors: Bristow Tegan , Zúñiga João Orecchia
Published: September 2021

This chapter presents an examination of why—in contemporary Africa, with Southern Africa as the primary focus—there are very few artists working with sound in a manner that fits the paradigm of sound art as it is known in Euro-America. Emphasis is not placed on a lack of intellectual engagement, which is significant in the Euro-American definition of sound art. What is presented does not aim to deviate from this, but rather acts to affirm an engagement with alternative forms of knowledge and mechanisms of sound found in the South. Three areas are explored; these however are interlinked and do not stand alone. The first is an understanding of the practice of interdisciplinarity as political engagement. The second explores the role of community and communal interaction with sound and how this is fundamental to form in the region. The third extends this by showing how the histories of knowledge and power are fundamental to these explorations in the region, emphasizing how contemporary explorations of sound are used to both contain and shift these histories. The chapter takes shape with the use of case studies and draws on interviews conducted by the authors.
Composing Fragmented Relations With Materials, Locations, and Archives
Authors: Southern Jen , Thulin Samuel
Published: September 2021

In this chapter we build on a relational perspective to sound art, drawing on theories of mobilities research and agential realism to explore the nature and texture of relations that are not only human but material, temporal, spatial and mobile. Informed by our work about a World War I memorial Homing (2016), we describe sound production as the composition of fragmented relations. These various aspects of fragmentation do not, however, make the work fall apart. Instead, within the building of a locative sound work, fragmentation becomes central to composition. Fragments are tied together, not into a smooth flow, but into a textured experience, as sound is used as a kind of connective tissue bringing disparate elements into relationships. We therefore suggest that by focusing on a Baradian reading of relationality in sound art, fragmented relations can be seen as both leading to composition and simultaneously being produced by its situated nature.
Origin Stories
Authors: Stoever Jennifer Lynn
Published: September 2021

This chapter examines auditory racism via the concepts of the sonic colour line and the listening ear and details its fundamental, deeply-rooted impact on what is called ‘sound art’. As the sonic colour line sorts ‘good’ listeners from ‘bad’, the curatorial listening ear—the disciplinary mode of white listening operating as the sonic colour line’s ready attendant—thoroughly permeates the exhibition, review, and scholarship of sound art, particularly in three areas: the field’s origin story, the pointed rejection of self-identified black diasporic aesthetics, and a refusal to hear critique on these grounds. In addition to auditing prior scholarship, I challenge previous renderings of ‘sound art’ via close and historically-contextualized analysis of artworks by Camille Norment, Betye Saar, Mendi + Keith Obadike, and Jennie C. Jones.
Listening
Authors: Denham Sue , Winkler István
Published: September 2021

Our perceptual systems provide us with information about the world around us and the things within it. However, understanding this apparently simple function is surprisingly difficult. In this chapter we focus on auditory perception and the ways in which we use sound to obtain information of the behaviour of objects in our environment. After a brief description of the auditory system, we discuss auditory scene analysis and the problem of partitioning the combined information from an unknown number of sources into the discrete perceptual objects with which we interact. Through this discussion, we conclude that auditory processing is shaped by the need to flexibly engage with the rhythms of living organisms and temporal regularities in the world.
Sound in the Mediated Space
Authors: Choi DooEun
Published: September 2021

With recent advances in technological media, the artistic notion of the multimedia environment has been dramatically extended. In this collection of interviews, sound will be examined in relation to various mediated spaces, from the ubiquitous urban space of telematic cities to enclosed audiovisual spaces. The sounds present in these mediated spaces act as triggers which allow the audience to transcend the sensory experiences of the mundane. They accomplish this through the visualization of invisible auditory forces, or by creating an immersive space beyond the realm of the physical ambient space. In some cases, sounds archived and shared on media platforms direct attention to larger sociopolitical issues. Such mediated environments, artistically augmented with the power of sound, become platforms wherein audiences can experience new potentials of sensory space. Furthermore, these works also introduce possibilities of new forms of sound-based connectivity and communication.
Sound Art and Time
Authors: Cox Christoph
Published: September 2021

This chapter explores the relationship between sound art and time, focusing on a set of works that mark milestones in the history of sound art and that explicitly engage varieties of temporality. It begins with a discussion of Thomas Edison’s invention of phonography, which allowed sound to be captured and gave it an untimely existence. It then turns to the work of John Cage, analysing it by way of Henri Bergson’s philosophy of time. The essay goes on to discuss the notions of time, duration, and eternity in Maryanne Amacher’s radio works, Max Neuhaus’s installations, La Monte Young’s Dream House, Jem Finer’s Longplayer, and other works.
The Inter-Human Cortex
Authors: Matthias John
Published: September 2021

This chapter outlines a theory of co-evolution of contexts and histories in human culture by making an analogy with the microscopic functionality of the human brain, and in particular Eugene Izhikevich’s idea of polychronization by mapping the network of ‘firing’ events in a biological neural network onto a network of ‘human events’ in the physical network of humans. The article utilizes the new theory to focus on the evolution of sound art by pointing to the multiplicity of origin contexts, and it examines a particular example of sound art installation, The Fragmented Orchestra (Jane Grant, John Matthias, and Nick Ryan) to exemplify the theory of the inter-human cortex.
Allomothering, Evolution, and the Environment
Authors: Radtke Sarah
Published: September 2021

This chapter evaluates another kind of infant care: allomothering. Allomothering can be defined as helping to rear and take care of the young by any member of the group besides the mother. Therefore, the term allomothers could refer to siblings, aunts, uncles, fathers, or unrelated members of a group. Allomothering is an adaptive behavior that has evolved in many species under different conditions. The chapter focuses on allomothering that occurs in six simian species. These six monkey species were selected because all have been observed to engage in allomothering behavior and, therefore, have been studied more intensely than other monkey species. Ultimately, the chapter assesses the questions of what physical environments promote alloparenting and what social behaviors are observed that increase social bonds between group members leading to stable allomothering.
The Cradle of Humankind
Authors: Kushnick Geoff
Published: September 2021

This chapter explores the relationship between parenting and technology from an evolutionary perspective. The exploration is organized around the “three styles” framework for understanding and differentiating between the three major evolutionary approaches to the study of human behavior: evolutionary psychology, human behavioral ecology, and dual inheritance theory. For each of these evolutionary approaches, the chapter provides two examples of the relationship between parenting and technology, one related to childbearing and the other related to childrearing. Is the evolutionary approach a useful one to understand this relationship? First, although each has as its focus the application of evolutionary theory to the study of human behavior, each of the three styles brings a different set of assumptions and priorities. Second, an evolutionary perspective points to specific, and theoretically justified, behavioral concomitants of technological change.
Evolutionary Perspectives on Maternal Parenting
Authors: Salmon Catherine A. , Hehman Jessica
Published: September 2021

This chapter focuses on maternal care, including the specialized psychological mechanisms designed to shape maternal solicitude and the various factors to which these mechanisms are sensitive. It identifies factors that influence levels of maternal parental investment. Maternal factors that lead to increased investment include the amount of resources available, potential for future mating opportunities and maternal age, and number of offspring. Child factors that lead to greater investment include reproductive value, age of the child, sex, offspring need, and relatedness to the mother. Although there has been an abundance of research on maternal parental investment, most of the studies have focused on individual factors that influence parental investment levels with only a few investigating interactive models. Therefore, more research investigating interactive models is necessary to better understand under which circumstances mothers would be more or less likely to invest in their offspring.
The Domestic Sources of Grand Strategy
Authors: Caverley Jonathan D.
Published: September 2021

Over the past decades of American-dominated International Relations, research on domestic sources of grand strategy has largely coalesced around the liberal ends of democracy and free trade. Given increasing Sino-American competition, this chapter predicts a turn to a more robust International Relations research program on the role that domestic ideas and material factors play in shaping grand strategy. This research will focus as much on the means of grand strategy as the ends. Much work already examines how democracy (and nondemocracy) can drive grand strategy, and important states in contemporary international politics differ on this front. On the other hand, almost all the major powers in the international system remain quite liberal in their international economic relations—the other concern of research on domestic influences on grand strategy. This chapter delves further into the grand-strategic role of regime type and the form of capitalism practiced within the state. It then suggests two additional under-researched domestic-level factors—militarism and nationalism—that will shape grand strategy in the coming years.