A key concept that has emerged through Woolley’s research is the animation of the inanimate—an idea closely tied to the notion of the uncanny. This blurring of boundaries between the familiar and the unfamiliar has roots in technological advancements such as the telephone (Licht, 2009). When sound emanates from an object, it disrupts our expectations, creating an unsettling experience where what we recognize is simultaneously questioned.

The tension between objectivity and subjectivity is central to the philosophy of sound art, as explored by Voegelin. She writes:

"Vision, by its very nature, assumes a distance from the object… [that] presents itself as truth. Seeing is believing. The visual gap nourishes the idea of structural certainty and the notion that we can truly understand things… By contrast, hearing is full of doubt: phenomenological doubt of the listener about the heard and himself hearing it… Consequently, a philosophy of sound art must have at its core the principle of sharing time and space with the object or event under consideration."
(Voegelin, 2010, p.xii)

Woolley’s sound sculpture Postmodern Communication (2013) was created in response to growing concerns about the shift from traditional telephone conversations to digital communication, particularly through social media in the early 2000s. The piece explores the increasing sense of unease and paranoia surrounding these new modes of interaction.

The sculpture consists of collected earwigs that subtly emerge from a brown, home-telephone unit, accompanied by an eerie soundscape of quiet whispers. This interplay of the familiar and the unfamiliar evokes the uncanny, eliciting reactions of curiosity, attraction, and repulsion, creating a sense of cognitive dissonance.

The sound component heightens this unease—whispered fragments of status updates taken from the artist’s Facebook feed are layered and manipulated, gradually merging into an indistinguishable murmur. This prompts questions not only about the materials used but also about the nature of contemporary social networking.

As private thoughts become public through smartphones—functioning almost like digital journals shared with vast networks of friends, acquaintances, and strangers—the intimacy of one-on-one phone conversations has been replaced by a cacophony of voices. We feel compelled to listen in, navigating an internal conflict between the desire to share and the fear of oversharing.

At the time of inception, this tension was an increasingly pressing concern. Yet, in a post-pandemic world, society has perhaps grown more accustomed to this paradox.

https://soundcloud.com/neo-43/post-moderncommunication-2013