Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance

189 Pages·2018·15.85 MB·English

by  Brandon LaBelle

Part of the Goldsmiths Press Sonics series
Goldsmiths Press's Sonics series considers sound as media and as material -as
physical phenomenon, social vector, or source of musical afecf t. The series
maps the diversity of thinking across the sonic landscape, from sound studies
to musical performance, from sound art to the sociology of music, from
historical soundscapes to digital musicology. Its publications encompass
books and extensions to traditional formats that might include audio, digital,
online and interactive formats. We seek to publish leading figures as well as
emerging voices, by commission or by proposal.

SoniAcg ency
Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance
Brandon LaBelle
A
Goldsmiths
w
Press
@ 2018 Goldsmiths Press
Published in 2018 by Goldsmiths Press
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross
London SEl4 6NW
Printed and bound by Clays Ltd, St Ives pie
Distribution by The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
Copyright@ 2018 Brandon LaBelle
The right of Brandon LaBelle to be identified as the author of this work has been
asrtedse by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 in the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed or transmitted in any fonn or by any means whatsoever without
prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations
in critical articles and review and certain non-commercial uses pennitted by
copyright law.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Llbrary
ISBN 978-1-906897-51-2 (hbk)
ISBN978-l-906897-53-6(ebk)
www.goldac.uk/goldsmiths-press
Goldsmiths
What you want to hear, you hear not. For, what finds its way out from
the underground and the out there is spoken in rhythms and tones, in a
language that solicits a different hearing.
(Trinh T. Minh-ha, elsewhere, within here)
Does not the perspective of a better future depend on something like an
international community of the shaken which, ignoring state boundaries,
political systems, and power blocs, standing outside the high game of
traditional politics, aspiring to no titles and appointments, will seek
to make a real political force out of a phenomenon so ridiculed by the
technicians of power -the phenomenon of human conscience?
(Vaclav Havel, "Politics and Conscience")

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Unlikely Publics: On the Edge of Appearance
2 The Invisible 29
3 The Overheard 60
4 The Itinerant 91
5 The Weak 124
6 Poor Acoustics: Listening from Below 154
Bibliography 164
Index 172

activists, and their initiatives, has greatly enriched my own practice. And
I can say, has sharpened as well as multiplied the overall moral and cre­
ative base from which I feel myself as a member of the communities in
movement. To such communities, and especially to those that never have
a name, I also extend my heartfelt gratitude.