Table Of ContentListening in the Afterlife of Data
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Listening
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n A ESTHETICS, PRAGMATICS,
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B AND INCOMMUNICATION
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David Cecchetto
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THA Duke University Press Durham and London 2022
© 2022 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞
Cover designed by A. Mattson Gallagher
Text designed by Drew Sisk
Typeset in Portrait Text, Canela Text, and IBM Plex Mono
by Copperline Book Services
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Cecchetto, David, author.
Title: Listening in the afterlife of data : aesthetics, pragmatics,
and incommunication / David Cecchetto.
Other titles: Thought in the act.
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2022. | Series:
Thought in the act | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021020891 (print)
lccn 2021020892 (ebook)
isbn 9781478015291 (hardcover)
isbn 9781478017912 (paperback)
isbn 9781478022534 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Technology—Philosophy. | Communication and
technology—Philosophy. | Communication and technology—
Social aspects. | Sound (Philosophy) | Communication and the
arts—Philosophy. | bisac: social science / Media Studies |
philosophy / General
Classification: lcc p96.t42 c433 2022 (print) |
lcc p96.t42 (ebook) | ddc 303.48/33—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020891
lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020892
Cover art: (Front) Fathead audio delay. (Back) Fathead Doppler
effect. Illustrations by Luke Painter.
With love, for:
Marshall, lunatic artist and lovable idiot;
Phannie, curmudgeon scientist and empathic savant;
Katherine, more- than and otherwise beyond compare.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction Incommunication 1
1 Networking Sound and Medium Specificity 21
2 Listening and Technicity 44
3 Incomputable and Integral
Incommunications 62
4 Algorithms, Art, and Sonicity 84
5 Listening and Technicity (Once and for All,
Again and Again) 105
Postscript Epidemiological Afterlives 124
Appendix Aural Incommunications Seminar Prompt 131
Notes 135 Bibliography 155 Index 163
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many colleagues, institutions, and
friends have contributed to what
has become this book. Special
thanks to my Occulture comrades Marc Couroux, Ted
Hiebert, Eldritch Priest, and Rebekah Sheldon, and more
broadly to the robust community of Tuning Speculation
folks who inspire me to think well and weirdly. This book
is peppered with sentences, phrases, and sometimes para-
graphs that I’ve presented at Tuning Speculation confer-
ences or posted at The Occulture (http://www.theocculture
.net), and is animated by that community’s care and
intelligence.
I was very generously hosted by University of New
South Wales Art and Design and am grateful for having
had the opportunity to work there with the feedback of
brilliant faculty and graduate students. I was astounded by
the collegial community at unsw and am thankful to Ca-
leb Kelly and Anna Munster in particular for their work
arranging my visit and for welcoming me so capaciously.
The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts has
been a fecund setting for developing this work, through
papers and panels but even more through the informal
conversations that texture life and ideas alike. I often re-
flect on the many scholars — too many to name, both ju-
nior and senior — who made me feel welcome there when I
was a graduate student and have continued to do so. I wish
I could name everyone I’ve learned from at slsa, but the
