Silence and Sound as Interrelated Phenomena: The Existential Semiotic Nature of Listening and a Methodological Consequence

Abstrakt

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26333/sts.xxxviii2.04

This study applies existential semiotics to examine the semiotic nature of listening, providing a novel framework to understand silence and sound as interrelated phenomena. Building a theoretical and methodological framework by interpreting the existential semiotic concept of situation and Z-model in a new way; silence is examined through the lens of Latin American minimist music. By presenting a case study analyzing Oscar Bazán?s Del Silencio, this work positions listening as a transformative act, bridging the existential, artistic, and semiotic dimensions of human experience. With the help of this methodological exploration, it is argued that, when listening is taken from an existential perspective, silence and sound must be understood as an interrelated phenomenon rather than two distinct elements. In turn, it can bring methodological developments through modalities whereby silence can be analyzed as a dynamic situation of a space of possibilities.