Noise as a Cultural and Philosophical Concept: Methodological Approaches and Key Characteristics

Based on the cultural-philosophical approach, the author analyzes the methodological significance of the concept of “noise” in modern cultural discourse and determines the distinctive features of this concept. The work is based on the results of research by philosophers and cultural scientists devoted to the conceptual understanding of the phenomenon of noise. The author applies the ontological approach as interpreted by Sergei Rumyantsev, within which there is an ontological opposition of noise and silence, which form the foundation of the “sound of the world = the universe”; the relationship between silence and noise is dialectical. The significance of the concept of “noise” in modern culture is determined through the use of a synergetic approach that allows us to explain reality, avoiding rigid schemes and implementing the principle of non-linear thinking. The social-communicative, semantic-art criticism and cultural-philosophical approaches to the methodological understanding of the concept of “noise” are highlighted. The article describes the main features of the sound picture of the world, analyzes Luigi Russolo’s manifesto “The Art of Noises” as the first exposition of the modern understanding of noise. The ideas of intermediality of representatives of the Russian avant-garde and the concept of noise as an artistic “device” among formalists (Vladimir Markov) are characterized. The establishment of this historical framework allowed the author to move on to the analysis of modern conceptualizations. Based on the ideas of Christophe Cox and the “new ontology” of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the methodological significance of noise in the modern picture of the world and its intermedial character are substantiated. The author agrees with the features of noise identified by Christophe Cox, adding to them “otherness” as a property in which it acts as something different in relation to the perceiver, forcing one to resist the power and dynamics of the sound it generates. The concepts used allowed the author to substantiate the interpretation of noise as one of the constituent elements of ontological reality, a necessary condition for the existence of being and giving it a form of expression. This concept is defined by the author both through the uncertainty and fragmentariness of the sound picture of the world. Intermediality, deterritorialization, self-organization and otherness are defined as the main characteristics of the concept under study. Such an understanding of the concept under study overcomes the traditional binary opposition “signal/noise” and reductionist strategies of its elimination. and a kind of multi-level “generator of differences”.