Welcome to the new iteration of “Sound Thinking,” a website about my work as a Chicago-based audio artist and teacher. Its first iteration launched in 1998. Designed, hand-coded, and launched by my friend Spencer Sundell. Yes, that was when the World Wide Web was quite new, perhaps radical; when few working artists had websites even. Rather than dwelling on that period in techno-cultural history, long before “web 2.0,” the existence of social media, and AI, let me first give thanks to Spencer and the other people who have helped to make this site possible.
“Sound Thinking” was the title chosen by Spencer, who generously and uniquely designed my first site, hosted on tezcat.com, then one among the original privately-owned Internet Service Providers in Chicago. I still find the title choice a curious fit for my sound-based practice. As the animated gif presents it, the title flips back and forth, reading as “thinking sound.” This is important because, if one is willing to be open to the influence of more-than-human actors, it leads to a more ecological understanding of what sound and listening mean for us all in our day-to-day lives. It’s important for everyone, not only for scholars and other professionals.
In terms of intent and functionality, then as now, I intend for this site to be as much of a resource as a vehicle for promoting my creative practice. My plan for the old ericleonardson.org site is to keep it as an archive and resource for fellow artists, students, makers, etc.
For this inaugural post, I’d like to thank Sparky Price and Steven J. Pearson who completed the final steps prior to its launch. Professor Michael Chase and his IT students at DePaul University for their work on developing this site in 2020, when the pandemic started. Much has happened since then, personally and professionally. I chronicled the professional end of that as best as I could on the old “what’s new” page. To the best of my ability, I will preserve that content.
