Sonic Agency

Sound as a form of resistance

Brandon LaBelle's book "Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance" explores how sound and listening can be used as tools for political transformation and resistance in a world dominated by visual culture. Here's a couple of key concepts from the book that really interest me:1: Sound as a form of resistance: LaBelle argues that sound's invisible, disruptive, and affective qualities can support political transformation and create alternative "unlikely publics" for fostering mutuality and dissent.2: Reimagining the public sphere: LaBelle challenges the traditional visual-centric understanding of the public sphere by emphasising the role of sound in shaping public spaces and interactions.3: Restoring voice: In a climate where many feel they have lost their voice, LaBelle suggests that sound itself may be the key to restoring it.

Reflection:

In my own personal practice I have explored the qualities of sound as a tool for shaping spaces outside of traditional systems and structures that dominate everyday life and exacerbate a sense of passiveness and disempowerment. For me, initially at least, it has been about creating a space for healing and escape, to invite authentic expression and reacquaint with parts of myself that have been hidden/oppressed. Through this practice I have refined the way I use instruments, with loopers and samplers, to allow for an open ended, improvisational approach to making sound/music. This method has allowed me to be ‘with’ sound in a deep state of embodied listening. Listen here for a live recording:

It is in this state of flow and meditation that I have been interested in. However, the concepts that LaBelle presents help to elevate my understanding from the personal to the social realm and in reflecting on his ideas I hope to gain more understanding about the entangled nature and interrelationship between the personal and social. Particularly, relating to autonomy, what impact does the personal have on the social? What happens in these radical spaces of listening and how can we utilise this space to reconfigure the social realm?

As my research developed I was able to take some of this sonic praxis into a social context by leading sound based activities with a group. Search and Reflect by John Stevens provides a range of practical activities to engage with sound in groups. No musical skill or experience is required to benefit from these brilliant workshops. Humour, synchronicity, connection, and non hierarchical collaboration emerge through this method.

What has become quite revelatory is the primacy of sound in engaging with embodied experiences. As LaBelle highlights, we live in a world dominated by a ‘visual-centric’ understanding of the world and by emphasising the visual (social media; advertising; education etc) we numb our sonic sensibilities and thus ‘tune out’ from a sense and dimension of the world through sound. Sound experience and sonic memory has foundation in evolution, emotional and social experience. By developing listening practices we can re-engage with our humanness and a somatic way of being.

Returning to the workshops. Sound, with it’s quality of embodied connection, then becomes a way of stepping outside of or bypassing existing social structures to re-engage with our human experience. It is in this realm that consciousness seems to grow and in this new consciousness the public sphere can be reimagined and therefore sound becomes a form of resistance against hegemonic structures. Of course there are visual methods that negotiate the same problems but they are essentially coded, language that must be learnt or at least agreed upon and this adds a layer of subjective meaning making that potentially acts as a barrier to intersubjectivity and social transformation.

Action:

I need to test these assumptions and develop practice that explores the theory. When a space of connection is established using sound, what might be reimagined and how can we give this language? does it need language?

Design a workshop or participatory sound activity that attempts to reflect the alternative “unlikely publics” and consider how these can be expanded.