Nitsche received PhD in philosophy in 2007 from the Charles University Prague. In 2016 he was named an associate professor at the Charles University in Prague (habilitation). 2016/17 he worked as a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Political Science.
His research focuses on phenomenology, phenomenological topology (Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty), philosophy of art, aesthetics, political philosophy, theory of media, phenomenology of religion. Nitsche formulated the “transitive-topological model of phenomenology” (see in his recent book Methodical Precedence of Intertwining. An Introduction to a Transitive – Topological Phenomenology, Königshausen u. Neumann, 2018). He also published Die Ortschaft des Seins. Martin Heideggers phänomenologische Topologie (2013), 3 other books in Czech, and more than 30 papers or chapters. He is the editor of a volume Image in Space. Contributions to a Topology of Images (in a phenomenological series Libri Nigri, Bautz Verlag, 2015).
Phenomenological Approaches to Sonic Experience
Our life-environment is increasingly affected by sounds, noises, voices, and music. The roar of traffic, the buzz of electric devices in our households, the music in headphones or loudspeakers: these and similar technical sounds are complemented by the growing intensity of the voices of nature, humans, our own bodies, etc. With the notion of “sonic environment,” I designate, in this talk, precisely this acoustic shape of our life-environment. Sonic environments (in so far as they are lived) are not composed of separate sounds, but created by what are called “sonic phenomena” (i.e. phenomena of lived experience with sounds, noises, voices, and music). Our acoustic experience is broadening to such an extent that phenomenological philosophy must question the primacy of the visual for understanding the structure of perception. The talk’s objectives are based on two basic premises: 1. The philosophy (incl. phenomenology) of perception gives priority to visual experience; consequently, its basic notions and methods are modelled according to visuality. 2. Once it describes aural experience, phenomenology thematically prefers listening to a voice or music over a less articulated sonic experience (i.e. sounds without an obvious meaning, melody, or rhythm). Therefore, I aim to address these gaps in the phenomenological approach to sonic experiences. Simply put, the goal of my presentation is to suggest how can phenomenology describe sonic environments.