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THE ART OF NOISE: Hearing, Feeling and Experiencing the Sound of Democracy
Author(s): Justin Patch

Source: Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal , Fall/Winter 2009, Vol. 92, No. 3/4,
Arts of Democracy (Fall/Winter 2009), pp. 303-329
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41179250
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THE ART OF NOISE:
Hearing, Feeling and Experiencing the Soun

of Democracy
Justin Patch
The roar of the crowd was otherworldly, shaking Investco Field

from top to bottom. The concrete and steel shook below my feet
and my ears split from the cacophony of 75,000 cheering,
whistling, yelling, and stomping, and my hands stung from clap-
ping. While my voice had succumbed to the dry mountain air and
repeated abuse long before the denouement of the acceptance
speech, the enthusiastic ululations heatedly billowed into the night
sky. The people around me, many of them complete strangers
mere hours before, hugged each other, offered high-fives and the
then-infamous fist-bumps, and shouted words of courage and vic-
tory. Fireworks shot up into the sky, red, white, and blue confetti
rained down, and the celebratory music of Brooks and Dunn's
"Only in America" was subsequently drowned out by the wild ap-
plause of the participants. My friend Kirk,1 a burly former Texas
high school line-backer and University of Texas Young Democrat,
turned to me and gave me a bear hug. On the verge of breaking
up with emotion he shouted, "This is our moment, man. We can't
lose."
Tn 1913, young Italian Futurist composer and inventor Luigi

Russolo forwarded the proposition that noise be incorporated
into the modern repertory of musical composition techniques.
His Futurist Manifesto called for a rigorous systemization of noise
along with a greater understanding of its changing role in the
ears, minds, and emotions of the modern populous. According
to Russolo, modern man thrives on the infinite new panoply of
industrial noises: They give him visceral pleasure beyond what
can be cultivated by the so-called classics of Western Art Music
for orchestra or opera. Industrialized man works in harmony
Justin Patch is a Lecturer in the Department of Music at Tufts University.
Soundings 92.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2009). ISSN 0038-1861.

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304 SOUNDINGS Justin Patch
with these machines; he reacts emoti

tence, and they in turn fulfill his nee
tensity in a way that older, dated for
longer can. Russolo ends his brief tre
composers to go out and observe ever
timbres and rhythms, and be embold
orchestra of noises" that exist in ever
ner.2 These sounds, not the intricacie
timbre, are the building blocks of the
Russolo followed his own advice, cate
type and producer, and spending year
noise machines for live performances
was only narrowly received in Italy a
have since passed out of existence wit
tion concerning their construction. H
time piece with few traces other than
agination, and a handful of drawin
guarded in hopes of future patent re
While it seems as though Russolo an
thetics never fully caught on in th
orchestrated noise has found a home in the modern world of
constructed sound.4 The modern political campaign in the
United States, with its own style of dense, melismatic orchestra
tion, has come to depend heavily on noise as a constitutive ele-
ment. In advertisements that feature live footage of the
candidate, or the carefully composed cadence of speeches at ral
lies, the systematic cultivation of noise, principally in the forms of
applause and crowd chants, is an essential element of the cam-
paign. Noise fills the atmosphere, sets the mood, heightens emo-
tions and inspires continued participation, emotional and
financial commitment. The manufacture and capture of suc
noise is indeed an art form, concerning manipulation and execu
tion of public oratory, knowledge of emotionally sensitive trigge
words and key issues, linguistic composition, and a theatric
sense of timing and delivery. It also calls for dense interplays be
tween predictability and freshness, the nouveau and the cliché,
current issues and time-honored causes.
Political noise is nothing if not composed and orchestrated,

but diverges from Russolo's aesthetics in one crucial respect: Un-
like the so-called autonomous musical tradition that Russolo was

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The Art of Noise 305
heir to, we as the participants are partial creators of the perform-

ance. Along with acting as the "public opinion" that dictates the
opérant rhetoric, we collectively and willingly produce the most
salient of sounds: that of clapping. Without our participation, an
effective composition does not exist. In the public realm of the
political campaign, the new machine that gives us so much plea-
sure, the device that we work in harmony with, is ourselves. Its
sound, the white noise of mass applause and vocalizations paired
with the chanting of directed slogans, is what brings our emotion
to peak, what fills us with a sense of hope, adoration, solidarity
and dare I say, love. We are noise-producing machines, complicit
in our individual dismissal, the massive companion species to
ourselves that gives comfort, aid, support and a sense of self and
otherness.5
We often hear that democracy is messy, as is only fitting for the

practice of attempting to fairly govern and provide equal protec-
tion for an incredibly diverse society. To this I would add that it is
also incredibly noisy, and in this turn we find ourselves faced with
the political undead: fascism. As theorist Walter Benjamin
pointed out in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Re-
production," one of fascism's modus operandi is the aestheticiza-
tion of politics. The careful creation and incessant (mechanical)
reproduction of political noise has become part of the campaign
aesthetic. From generalized mass vocal support to virulent cri-
tique, the noise of democracy overlaps the amplified edges of
fascism. An often cited quote by Adolph Hitler, "Without the
loudspeaker we would never have conquered Germany,"6 dem-
onstrates what Benjamin experienced, the cooptation and silenc-
ing of political dissent and flattening of public opinion through
the machine-turned-aesthetic. From this vantage it is easy to see
how the Italian Futurists found themselves fully supporting fas-
cism in Italy, relegating their intellectual movement to war rub-
ble in the decades after World War II.
While I would not draw the conclusion that we are staring

down the barrel of fascism, the democratic nature of noise is not
without its fascistic other. In our current social situation the na-
ture of the relationship between the human and inhuman is
vastly different than at the time of Russolo or Benjamin. Instead
of being affectively swayed by the amplified sounds of political
rhetoric through the power of the loudspeaker, factory, radio,

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and film, we have become our own inhuman other. We are

agents in our own erasure and mass-ification, and become the
political machine, the amplifier through which a homogeneous,
inarticulate mass is formed. The dialectic between these two
poles is noise - the uneven cacophony of multiplicity that at
tempts to become singularity. We the polity are the machine
which produces the very noises that stir emotion more effectively
than Beethoven and overpower us more directly than the voice
of the great Oz.
This makes it imperative that we understand how noise oper-
ates within the political sphere. Before we can revisit the question
of democracy and fascism in an age of not only mechanical re-
production, but solipsistic listening,7 spectacle and celebrity, le
us examine the experience of political noise, from the gathering
of individuals into a willing group, to the production of noise, to
the place of the listener hearing both the self and the group
producing both for the sake of being lost, and finally to the last-
ing emotional and material affects of being engulfed by and feel
ing the noise. Finally, we will return to the question of
democratic noise and its relation to the politics of totalitarian
power.
The Political You
One of the most delicious ambiguities in the English la

is the word you - it encompasses both the singular and t
ral with no clear grammatical distinction. You can stand f
the individual and the group, separated out only by the in
of the addresser and the comprehension of the ad
Mikhail Bakhtin reminds us that any utterance is a socia
tract, the meaning being understood and negotiated b
equal parties in the determination of significance and ef
In the case of an appeal that centers on you, those involv
hearing the utterance decide for themselves if they a
pelled to be involved, if they are susceptible, swayed o
vated, to willingly become part of the You.
This linguistic idiosyncrasy appears to be prophetically
for US Democracy, and indeed linguists Sapir and Whorf
pothesis concerning the causal connections between la
and worldview might be used to shed light upon this.9 Is
ble that US politics, so centered on the illusive dreams an

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of liberalism - with negligible impact from political movements

like monarchy, communism, fascism or socialism that once ex-
erted considerable force in Europe10 - has been shaped by this
linguistic idiosyncrasy? Even if one is unconvinced by linguistic
determinism, it is tempting to see a correlation between this es-
sential, recurrent element of political rhetoric, and the cultural
surfaces in which these linguistic practices are embedded.
For those fighting a wave of disenchantment and frustration
with Washington, You has become a staple of campaign rhetoric
as a means to reconstitute a disenchanted public. Speeches regu-
larly contain calls to action and persuasive mandates that hinge
on You sending politician X to Washington to work for You, on
Your behalf, with Your interests in mind. And it all begins with
You. While this is, in fact, the way that theoretical democracy
works - elections being dependent on voters, who are in fact
being addressed and appealed to directly by the candidates -
the proliferation of You in recent times, as well is its attachment
to remembered and iconic phrases, deserves to be more than a
footnote in political rhetoric. This turn of phrase appears at
times of great upheaval, promise and enthusiasm, and it is a
sonic presence in what are perhaps the two most notable elec-
tions in the media age.11
He stands poised at the podium, a fresh face, the first major party
Black candidate for the office of the Presidency, with international
ties and a back story like no one before him. He appears to look
into the face of each and every adoring supporter who hangs on
his every word. He stares into the future and into the past. Regally
he sails the wave of energy to his denouement: This election is not
about me, it's about you. The crowd goes wild.
On a blustery January, the stage is filled with the nation's political
elite seated behind the podium and bundled against the cold as
they witness history and promises of their own. The newly sworn-in
president, a war veteran, Senator, and member of the US's most
prominent Catholic family, is perched at the podium, fearlessly
dressed in a suit with no overcoat despite the wisps of frozen
breath that emanate from his lips with every word. And so my fel-
low Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what
you can do for your country. The crowd applauds as this phrase is
indelibly inscribed onto the political imagination of the nation.
During the 2008 presidential campaing, as the term "grassroots

supporter" came to be uttered with both mystical significance
and partisan disdain, those who accepted the social contract of

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You gathered in offices, meeting room

waited patiently for a chance to see th
hot, cold, or wet conditions. Some wh
worked tirelessly for hours in suppor
became camera fodder for feel-good
old enough to remember a time when
or did not actively participate in polit
being put to the test. Could this really be
too-close-to-call letdown? Despite misgiv
emboldened by the message, the feeli
and the numerous others who gathe
and support. The You began to grow,
larger crowds and more heated argum
and in the press. There seemed to be
size of the You and the attention that
date in a self-perpetuating symbiosis.
Through the long campaign season,
blogs, videos and photos rippled acros
The You evolved from being an imme
cative call to action spoken directly fr
into a figment of the technoscape,12
the public sphere, a mythical beast an
and zealous crowds were translated
videos, reproducing themselves in dif
country and the globe. The You was t
space, across generations. Its being
feeling - grew, touching both part
moved with ebullient emotions, with
increasing numbers, enthusiasm and
thunderous applause. The You was mo
of one, but heard itself in its every
words were spoken, or at the sight
personified.
The political You is multiply determi
cal structure of liberal representationa
ics, pointed political rhetoric and the
English language. It is both constr
through the practice of participat
events, the electronic and print sphe
in interpersonal encounter, and by ca

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self, sees and hears itself, and like the blob, it feeds on the incor-
poration of others, turning them into part of the slow, giant
wave. But the You resists static interpellation because it renews
itself and becomes a force only when a cogent affective structure
is presented. Political formulas and strategies that worked eight,
four, even two years before can prove to be wholly ineffective;
older structures of feeling can be reanimated after time out of
political discourse, and new and powerful rhetorical formula-
tions can be haphazardly concocted. Through various means,
campaigns experiment with structures that attempt to create a
You, but that can only partially construct the You, leaving the cor-
poreal manifestation of You to finish the project laid out for it.
Chief among these architectural frames is noise: copious, over-
whelming, bone-rattling, deafening, disorienting, and controlled.
The noise of the crowd - in applause, chants, enthusiastic
screams and Hollers - is one of the key building blocks, de-
signed by the campaign and built by the Citizens, which deeply
affected the sonic presence of this past election cycle.
On an early morning hotel shuttle to the Denver Airport, a slender
middle-aged woman with a cane, one of the members from the
Texas delegation, was helped into the front seat. In the silence
dictated by five grueling but energizing days of meetings, speeches
and celebrations, her phone rang, and she answered. She excitedly
talked about the Convention, the acceptance speech and the com-
ing battle in the months ahead. You know this grassroots isn't go-
ing to stop once he's elected. We're gonna be right there with
him.
As the You heard itself in its own noise, the deafening din and
historic roar of tens of thousands, it began to imagine itself dif-
ferently; it transformed itself, its imaginations and fantasies. The
You mystically predicted the future and placed itself in an agen-
tive relation to it; the You simultaneously became a logical out-
come of participation, its brain child, and an active determinant
in the unfolding future.
Noise: Power and Pliability
Investigation into the term 'Noise' finds it used in a gre

versity of places, spaces, and practices at the most diverse
the scholarly spectrum. Although most associated with sou
sonic cultures - in medical sciences, psychology, law, t
cording industry, material and expressive culture - it

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pears in the languages of stock trader

in the Communications Studies sub-di
tion. It is almost universally considere
cise and unwanted, a hindrance, a
distorts and obscures and something t
mized or carefully factored out. Noise shares in music's
polysémie nature, its capacity for multiple and contingent inter-
pretations, its vague and contested meanings. For auditory cul-
ture of all strains, it is outside of the organized, or intentionally
disorganized, excessive and blurry. No matter the social state of
noise, it is antithetical to clarity.
Auditory theorist Steven Connor cites a psychology study that
concludes that children who are subjected to noise while at
school - industrial noise like a freeway or airport for example
- have notably decreased powers of concentration, score lower
on standardized tests than comparable peers who are educated
in low-noise situations and have decreased problem solving skills,
even when removed from the cacophonous environment.13 Con-
nor's own conclusion is that noise that we are not in control of
subjugates and weakens, along with distorting and hampering

the cognitive process, demonstrating the immense and lasting
power that noise has.14
Connor, following Jacques Attali's assertion that noise is nor-
malcy pushed past any known limit, states that modernity is char-
acterized by the human capacity to make inhuman sound. From
the deafening noise of mechanical technology and war, the dis-
embodied sounds of the telephone and record, to the amplifica-
tion of the minute sounds of rushing blood and the delicate
hums and ticks of insects, we are surrounded by a bizarre audio-
spheric cacophony of our own making. Contrary to Russolo's
mandate that young composers seek out everyday noise for the
purposes of reproducing it for an audience, but Connor's points
out that modernity is already filled with people who both com-
pose and consume mechanical symphonies for one (or more)
each time they turn a switch or press a button.
Noise, however, is contingent - one man's music is another
man's noise. It is sculpted and defined by previously held aesthet-
ics and the threshold for variation and deviation, as well as by the
imagination. We find noise everywhere: our homes, our places of
work and leisure, public and private spaces. We are constantly re-

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defining our parameters for noise, including and excluding as

repetition becomes either unbearable or invisible. It is a nui-
sance, a distraction and a motivating force, as well as a variety of
sound that exists in the background, out of mind's ear but within
auditory distance. Here is where Connor's intervention into
blanketing noise is key to this argument: He asks the question of
control. To be subjected to noise, made to listen, is to be con-
trolled by a force that diminishes and impedes us from the in-
side. For Connor, the converse is also relevant: The act of
producing noise, which you (and others) are then subjected to, is
empowering. To control radio and the public deployment of
high-wattage sound systems, to exert control over noise, for the
purposes of playing music that is deemed to be transgressive at a
particular historical moment (when was the last time Beethoven
was heard blaring from the car next to you?), is an attempt at
gaining power, even if it is fleeting and momentary.15
Noise, like speech, is also an uneven social negotiation. It re-
quires a producer (although that could be produced in the natu-
ral world) as well as an auditor, a discourse and an aesthetic. It is
a social creation that is necessarily in opposition to another sonic
phenomenon, be it music, silence, or the same sound at a reason-
able volume. By this logic Connor's dictum on controlling noise
points directly to confrontation: Noise is not only created in op-
position, it is molded by a desire to subdue, subjugate and ma-
nipulate, to clear space, minds and beings. Those who produce
noise are in search of not only power, but control and domina-
tion, to wrest potency from another. In this we can see the politi-
cal slippage between sonic majoritarianism - those with louder/
more support rule the day - versus fascism and forced tyranny
through ascending levels of obstreperous suppression.
Feeling Noise
However obscuring noise may be it does possess a special

ity, which is affect. Many scholars point to the fact that
emotion and the body are densely tied in theories that da
to Aristotle.16 Noise, for Connor, is always a visceral exper
Those affected by noise, from industrial clamor, airplanes
ing overhead, high-decibel concerts, the inexplicable ge
tions of the market, or a particularly ear-opening renditi
composer John Cage's 4'33"17, cannot help but be chan

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the experience, modified by the magn

sublimity of noise. They truly 'feel the n
The definition of affect that I find th
applicable to political noise is drawn fro
What is Philosophy, where it is defined as b
(164, ital. in the original) and "nonhuman
ibid.). These becomings are a point that
ferentiation, where the subject disappear
picture, or the place. I add to this list, th
of descriptions of being lost in sound
point to the importance of the sonic d
For Deleuze and Guattari, these blocks of sensations stand on
their own, apart from the object that created them and have a
transformative and lasting effect on the observer. The affects that
noise possesses and passes to its subjects alter their perception,
leave them differently and move them to action.
This is echoed by* Connor when he theorizes the state of the
subject in modernity not as a single or stable point where sound
arrives but as a membrane or channel through which sound
moves.18 The subject of industrial modernity is not as much a
receptacle as a conduit for sound. Tying these two threads to-
gether in a political context moves towards a theory in which citi-
zens are affected, as these blocks of politicized sensation -
noise, rhetoric, emotion - pass through and transform them,
altering their perception, reception and social relationships. To
extrapolate from Connor's conclusion about the affect of indus-
trial noise on children, political noise also exerts a cognitively
altering force that can maintain potency after the subject is re-
moved from the generative event. Political noise need not neces-
sarily move through subjects temporally. If well executed, sound
can get trapped in the subject and emerge at a later time, in per-
haps a different form, to move through other subjects like the
possessing demon in a horror movie. As we will see below with
the sound of clapping, sounds move through the crowd as they
hear themselves produce a You, but apart from the crowd, this
enthusiastic sound manifests itself in other kinds of political
noise and affect. The modern subject, like a membrane, can
translate noise into other forms of political energy, and it is these
energies, frightfully observed by Benjamin and gleefully pro-

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duced by the spin doctors and speech writers of the campaign,

that are jealously sought after.
In this realm, the sound of thousands of participants putting
their hands together and applauding wildly erases the differenti-
ation of the crowd. From afar we are a mass of supporters; from
within we are an unstoppable movement, an irresistible force.
When we look and listen from afar it is with a sense of forebod-
ing, that the opposition is too great in number; from within we

feel an inevitable and mystical sense of triumph, which pushes us
to donate, volunteer and otherwise give of ourselves. The act of
collective clapping is like an amplifier, each clap moves through
us and into another, repeated thousands of times until it reaches
a deafening pitch. As we produce this noise - clapping, holler-
ing, chanting - we are our own machine, hearing ourselves am-
plified and expanded thousands of times over.
In this chamber we are both the producers and consumers of
Russolo's Art: Our post-industrial celebrity system of modernity
determines the shape of the noises that move us (crowd noise);
we then co-produce it (under the guidance of a political rhetori-
cian) and are deeply affected by it and moved to further action.
Harking back to the loudspeaker of the Third Reich, we are pre-
sent on both sides of the machine. As the "public" in public opin-
ion we have a direct impact, although by no means total, on the
political terms that are relevant and effective, on the terms which
are then used to elicit our noise, and push us into further
involvement.
Politics is filled with noise in both conventional and metaphor-

ical senses. The affect, feeling, sensation, and picture of immense
noise are perhaps one of the most moving aspects of a political
rally. Conversely, the mundane background noise generated by
the constant banter of television ads, the media talking heads,
and endless, meaningless speculating is one of the least affecting
parts of politics (for the sake of you, the reader, I'll focus on the
more interesting noise). Emerging from a sea of spectators all
bunched together and jockeying for position, holding cell
phones and digital cameras up high, hoping for a souvenir shot
or video clip, all looking for the best view the spectacle, the
sound of the crowd's applause is a giant film that coats the spec-
tators, the nourishing embryonic fluid of a political moment.
Within it we are all joined together, a momentary community of

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body and mind, spirit and ideology. The

with tangible energy as our ears ring with
elated vocalizations. Complete strangers gr
ally, offer fist-bumps and hugs, strike up con
ries and memories. We are becoming the Y
plural, affectively bonded and changed by
pation in noise. The space at rallies become
- as full of being and life as it is of exp
material as well as functional, transformed
transformative in memory and in its repro
of being there, at that moment, in that crow
terial outcomes of these affects are the qua
cal; they can bring majorities at the p
volunteers and money. The captured ephem
comments, articles and memories are the noise of the crowd that
has finally passed through the membrane, translated into social
action.
The gathering of the crowd, its noise, is one of the most crucial
aspects of political advertising, political involvement and persua-
sion. Drawing out dense and enthusiastic crowds though market-
ing, publicity and celebrity power is essential in re-presenting
candidates as electable, viable, exciting, and worthy of the atten-
tion of potential voters, donors, and media outlets. Not only is it
crucial to show stills and clips of the candidate surrounded by
adoring fans, pulsing throngs pushing closer and closer to the
stage in quasi-religious fervor, it is also essential to hear and feel
them - the roar of the applause that punctuates and frames
talking points and sound bites, or the candidate's entrance and
exit from the stage. The moments of arrival and departure, so
mythically ensconced in political theater, act as an obvious ba-
rometer of popularity and enthusiasm and are accentuated and
noted by journalists who recount the thunderous applause of the
long-awaiting spectators and edit their video accordingly.
At these moments the living tableau of the celebrity political
candidate becomes the picture into which the crowd loses itself,
becoming one with the candidate's political movement - the
addressed You - as the embodiment of political life and demo-
cratic ideals of mass participation and majority rule through
noise. In Deleuze and Guatarri's exegesis of the concept of the
percept, they use the example of Virginia Woolfe's Mrs. Dal-

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loway, from the novel of the same name, "who perceives the town
- but because she has passed into the town like 'a knife through
everything' and becomes imperceptible herself," (169). These
crowd scenes, masterfully created by the campaign,19 spew with
affect, transforming the participants into an undifferentiated
noisy mass and a persuasive political percept. The individuals be-
come imperceptible as they become the crowd, a pack of You
with the candidate as their leader. Popularity, the necessity of
democracy, is a percept of thousands merging in dedication and
devotion to one, who in turn will be faithful to them. Like the
character in the example, we are woven into the crowd, indepen-
dently invisible and imperceptible, but this transformation needs
the accompaniment of crowd noise to move the individuals into
being a political pack. The affect that creates such a percept, a
becoming crowd, necessitates the vision of the crowd along with
the sound and feeling, a synaesthetic state of being.
As the press and the campaign struggle with and against sup-
porters and spectators to craft a candidates' persona, they are
also creating a sound/percept. While campaigns attempt to con-
trol the message and associations of the candidate, they manufac-
ture a picture of an object that synaesthesically connects feelings
and emotions to sounds - catch phrases and the noise of ap-
plause meant to trigger specific affects. On the campaign trail,
wise words spoken mean nothing if they are not accompanied by
the sound of mass approval. The image of the candidate must be
synonymous with applause; the picture of an event in which the
observer partakes, the percept, the living picture, must sound
like the typical voracious crowd, must be accompanied by self-
made, carefully orchestrated noise.
The political crowd is the pack of modernity's liberal politics; it
aims to grow and to move with singular purpose, efficiency and
breadth.20 Behind its leaders and its hierarchy, it seeks to con-
quer through communion and action, and to share the spoils in
orgiastic delight, then break apart into its smaller segments and
modules after the feasting. When the pack is again a necessity, a
leader must assemble the You, grow it, and once again bring it
under his control. Their efficacy is put to the test and if they are
defeated, loyal followers go hungry. To grow and maintain these
packs is a sonic duty: discourse, soundscape and the noise of the

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You; the latter grows and multiplie

plied, amplified self and denies th
The Democratic National Conventio
starting at 6:30 and ending well aft
the day of Obama's historical accep
the office early and take a shuttle ove
event. A good friend, one of the C
had gotten there early and had ma
with sight lines to the main stage an
well as to the big screen that enlarg
from Mars. It was still early in the
beating down relentlessly as the mo
ists took to the podium to address t
for a few minutes with a man from
an alternate to the New York deleg
fatigue. Suddenly, I was jarred out
literally shook with applause, cheer
In that moment, the atmosphere su
lutely electric and full. It pressed a
body shake and my ears ring. It h
space of anticipation to one of arriv
ged me, Hey man, Bill Richardson
started clapping as the Governor to
the feeling of it all.
Listening to Noise
Philosopher Don Idhe (1976/2003), in his work on the

nomenology of sound, has pointed to numerous ways in wh
the auditory imagination works,21 a few of which are partic
applicable to the large-scale political rally. He theorizes thre
points in his theory of listening: the dissolution of self in
(as well as in music), the co-presence of listening, and the
of listening with the entire body. He draws no conclusions
leaves these open to further inquiry, expansion and applica
to different circumstances. Political crowds are one instance in
which all three of these are in motion, in play, and are formative
forces in the acquisition of political feeling.
Sound at excessive volumes, one of the many definitions of
noise, can cause the disruption of focused and private internal
dialogue, forcing the inner voices to curse the invasion of the
outside world . . . it's so loud I can't hear myself think. At these mo-
ments, internal dialogue does not stop, but rather moves away
from where the ego would like it to be and into forced alterca-

34.192.2.131 on Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:55:03 UTC
tion and inter-relation with a social other that is unwanted and
unable to be successfully or creatively integrated into the present

aim. The undeniability of the outside world, and the unwilling
auditor's place in it, forces the internal dialogue to engage with
the noise. It changes the flow of thought, moving it into the so-
cial and away from the solipsistic. As noise flows to and through
the body, it takes the mind's inner dialogue with it, redirecting it
and disrupting its self-prescribed path. Like the unfortunate
school children by the highways and airports, the self is helplessly
compromised by noise.
In the political context of a rally, where social space is
politicized, the roar of the crowd, its applause, shouts and chants,
forces internal dialogue into social engagement with the others
who are present, listening, feeling and responding to the dis-
course, the rhetoric and the spin. The crowd submits to these
words, gestures and sentiments, but also to the emotion of the
noise, to getting spun22 - incorporating the feelings and ac-
tions, the lines and points of the political machine into the self.
The crowd willingly participates in its own self-delusion and self
re-creation in the mold set out for it by the campaign and other
para-political apparati. By forming on their own and responding
positively to the cues to make noise, the crowd becomes the You,
willingly accepting the social contract. As the imagination of the
political machine charts demographics, the crowd moves to fit
these pockets, to be enfolded and to establish ownership of these
pre-fabricated idealities. As those around you erupt in applause,
insert their commentary, and connect themselves to separate
dimensions of discourse, their noise penetrates the inner spaces
of personal thought and moves it into resonance with the sound
of the political spaces, into affective communion.
At times, the loss of self in sound is not forced by volume or
intrusion, but is a welcome and desired by-product of the listen-
ing action. We seek to be in the sound, in the moment. We try to
be one with the material vibrations, to let them dominate and
move us where they go, whether it is a familiar journey or un-
charted territory. As part of the crowd, the audience, the pack
and the You, we are encircled by flesh, sound and ideology made
material. We are moved from the plane of the self, the singular
you, to the plane of the plural, disembodied and embodied dif-
ferently, separated and reconnected to others. The pleasure lies

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in the sensation of hearing ourselves mu

of externalized approval, encouragement
plified beyond our individual capabilities
In front of us were two middle-aged black
nines, suave, jovial, vivacious, gregarious,
The man in front of me was a large man, we
arms and broad shoulders, a shaved head,
and hands like meat hooks. He wore an
brown checkered suit with a crisp white s
flinks. Next to Kirk and me were two white women from Califor-
nia, timidly vocal but engagingly talkative.
When Barack Obama was announced and strode regally onto
the stage, we all jumped to our feet, remaining there for the first
few minutes of the speech. When the reality of a half-hour speech
set in, most sat down, but continued to enthusiastically applaud
and cheer, and to rise to our feet at heightened moments. The
man in front of me exuded the picture of being in a stereotypical
Black Evangelical Church: he responded to the moments that
touched him as though Obama himself were but a few rows away,
and not a giant head on the jumbotron. He pointed at the podium
and intoned, "say it, brother. Say it!"
Midway through the acceptance speech, Obama touched on the
topic of education, which clearly hit a nerve with the two women
next to us. They screamed and clapped. The man in front of me
abruptly turned to her and said, "If you want him to keep talkin',
you've gotta let him know. Say 'Say it!'" She blushed a little and
laughed, but he was serious, this was a teaching moment, full of
passion and pride. Come on, let me hear it, he prodded. "Say it,"
she said timidly. You can do better than that, he responded, feign-
ing frustration. He demonstrated again, pointing at the podium
and shouting "Say it." She practiced again, this time pointing and
elevating her voice. That's it. Now that's how it's done.
The next time Obama ended on one of his major barn-burners,
and the crowd erupted, he looked back at her to see if the lesson
had stuck. She quickly pointed at the podium and said "Say it" with
a smile. The group in front of us grinned and applauded, for both
speakers.
Idhe also asserts that we hear ourselves differently, that we feel

our own resonances and our own voices extend into greater
ranges and feelings than that which is heard by others or cap-
tured through mechanical means. In the political pack, we also
hear ourselves differently, we feel our eardrums shake, our chests
tremble and our palms sting from the intensity and force of the
collected noise. We respond to the calls as one gigantic machine,
a blind organism with the ability to shake even Man's greatest

34.192.2.131 on Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:55:03 UTC
architectural feats. In the pack, we feel resonances deeper than

ourselves, but contribute it to our own making, the gargantuan
You that speaks in the simplified language of noise. Our self is
expanded, experienced larger and deeper. If flesh is the barome-
ter of becoming,23 then by our noise on our flesh, made through
our flesh, felt from head to toe, inside and out, we are becoming
You.
If we believe Idhe's insistence that we hear ourselves differ-

ently, Steven Connor's (2003) assertion that we produce our-
selves differently when we clap must be taken into
consideration.24 While political rallies can be different - clap-
ping is sometimes substituted for shouting and the waving of
signs - clapping still stands as the appropriate and expected re-
sponse, and the main producer of political noise. Apart from Pri-
mary and Election days, with the notable exception of those
chosen for further service at state and national conventions, we
make ourselves heard through active participation in the act of
clapping. Connor, in a brief overview of the phenomena of clap-
ping, runs through a number of interesting theories that inter-
sect and fold into the production of political noise.
The sound of clapping is the body made vocal, or quasi-vocal,
its speech reduced to un-nuanced expressions of noise, differen-
tiated only by duration, intensity, presence and non-presence.
For Connor, it is the irrational expression of human life, unable
to be placed into systems of signification and defying logics. It is
the sound of compressed and restrained affect that bursts forth
uncontrolled, mired in muddy relations with others and at the
service of charismatic power. Clapping is inarticulate in many
ways. There is no voice, save for "body-voice" as Connor refers to
the clap. There is little communicative power in the clap that is
specific beyond the immediacy of the preceding utterance, and
nothing that stimulates consideration and discussion; it holds no
subtlety or critique. It does, however, hold remarkable affective
power and often heightens the experience of both the partici-
pant and the recipient of the accolades of noise.25
Clapping is also associated with magical transformation and
mystical significance. Magic tricks are framed with clapping, as
are some Shinto prayers. The clap announces, and brings the
human world into the world of the supernatural (Needham,
quoted in Connor, 70). As demonstrated in J.M. Barrie's appeal

34.192.2.131 on Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:55:03 UTC
to the children of his audience by ha

dren to clap to bring Tinkerbell back
fantasy flesh (along with being a ch
support). Simple, quiet belief is not
make fantasy real; only the collected
ping, the loss of reserve, rationality,
fantasy.
Within the magical world of politics,26 noise is often coached
to erupt at specific points. Talented speech writers and public
speakers know these points and deliver them flawlessly, intuitively
backing off the microphone to let the noise ring and beginning
at the moment before the applause sinks. We in the crowd also
know when to participate. We know the buzz phrases and talking
points, we can hear and feel when our anticipated moment has
arrived and the irrational part of human nature is given license
to come forth. As clapping slows time and freezes the moment,
and the a-rational nature of politics is unleashed, what fantasies
are being brought to life?
At some moments of auditory engagement, we partake in what
Idhe labels as "co-presence," where at least minimal distance is
maintained. In these states of imaginative listening we insert our
commentary into the moment and percepts are formed. As we
perceive events, intellectually, affectively and viscerally, we add
our own thoughts, sculpt the moment to suit our own narratives.
Although we are surrounded by fellow members of the pack, we
inevitably separate, straining the relationship that affective polit-
ics works hard to render immutable. After the experience, we are
left with the narrative of the event, shaped by both the phenome-
nal external sensations as well as our own internal narrative,
which is liable to change as it is enfolded within the circulation of
tellings and hearings of the story, visions of similar events of tele-
vision,27 and reports of other similar events, contextualized and
analyzed, chopped and screwed by talking heads, editorials and
commentary.
As the texture of our memory changes, the sensations of the
events trickle back into the mind's recesses, the noise of those
immediately around us is replaced by the memory of nondescript
noise from any other crowded event in our past. The sound has
passed thorough us (the membrane), leaving our own memories
to become enchanted, to accrue extraordinary meanings and

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mandates. Indeed our minds are influenced by these charms and

incantations,28 the fuzzy memory of massive sound and feeling,
enfolded by their repetitions as our presence at the event fades.
The affect of the event alters us in a lasting way, but we also co-
narrate the change, charm ourselves and turn these events and
happenings into meaningful memory and experience-based
opinion. We perpetuate the mythic phenomena of being there,
of the experience and feeling of the event, momentarily giving
ourselves over to the pack in political unity and the composed
choreography of noise and silence. As the candidate makes
noise, we are silent, attentive to every word, although through
our world of instantaneous connections, we know each word
before it is uttered. As we respond with noise, the candidate is
silent, observing as the throngs participate in this irrational activ-
ity and collective anonymity that they do not.
Both sides participate in noise and silence in an intricate inter-
play rather than a binary. In the cosmos of an event, the noise of
the pack is reigned in by the noise of the candidate, as we must
listen and be subjugated and in turn raise the candidate to power
through our noise. Indeed the a-rational nature of politics
amounts to the exchanging of noise and silence as a free multi-
switch circuit. However, the effects of this circuit are aimed at the
You, which closes the circuit just short of being inclusive, leaving
the candidate as the excess, a free radical, a Golem brought to
power but uncontrollable. The pack and its noise/silence is du-
plicated, reproduced and recreated to increase the pack and
transfer the affects. Power no longer seeks silence and admits
noise as a symbolic practice. It cultivates noise to create the You
that hears itself, co-hears itself, and ultimately is propelled to its
own sacrificial behavior in the form of democratic representa-
tion, although the ghosts of the You remain after the election.
Remember: "You know this grassroots isn't going to stop once
he's elected. We're gonna be right there with him."
You: Combining Noise and Signal
At this point, after two years of research and fieldwork, I migh

be tempted to say that behind politics there are lies and abu
false promises, unrealistic expectations, and untenable optim
maybe I could say that the You of politics is a phantasm, a me
ingless slogan, or a ghost. I might say that all is for naught

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that the You that is created is just as soo

leviathan moves on at its own pace with o
only at rare moments and always manip
power, by the them, of which You will n
will offer this: The You of politics is a ch
a creature with two types of flesh, two bei
and individual, but intertwined and exist
in opposition.
The noise of the unwanted caste and the
are both opposed to a clear and distinct
differentiated from noise it requires th
nature, be separated from the always alr
in congress with the always already existing
ers and signals. The You in itself is no
through the empty repetition and mean
also signal, in that it figures into politic
of its own noise. It participates in making
rhetoric and spin meaning and affect.2
noise and returning crowd noise, J.M Ba
simply and enthusiastically clapping, mak
We are an active part in both our own
creation. With our own noise we realize
into signal - and exert tremendous powe
made by political actors. By withholding
their political rhetoric to mere noise an
profundity. We can not render it silent,
and contagion. Statements that do not
disposed of in favor of new experiments
ties exist inside each other in perpetual
forces of all varieties, like other noises. W
and we are both its creators and subject
Finale: The Elephant in the Room30
While we look back at the events of the past two years and for-
ward to the political battles being fought in Washington and in
Statehouses around the country, we often choose to see the work-
ings of democracy, either in execution or violation. But in recent
offhanded comments made by a suffering opposition, veiled and
overt references to fascism and totalitarianism have been made.
While these remarks may hold little water, the underlying ques-

34.192.2.131 on Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:55:03 UTC
tion is of great interest. In his essay, "The Work of Art in the Age
of Mechanical Reproduction," Walter Benjamin writes briefly
about perception changing as social circumstances undergo
modulation. Despite assertions that political movements like Fas-
cism and Monarchy have made little impact on US politics,31
changes in modes of consumption, particularly of mass media/
social networking, enabled by the proliferation of the internet
and wireless technology, have caused metamorphoses in social
conditions. In the years since that statement was made, has fas-
cism become a possibility in a nation so steeped in liberalism?
It seems that many of the auditory patterns experienced and
relayed by observers of recent political campaigns might be all
too familiar to those who had likewise observed European Fas-
cism. The mass gatherings of unlikely partners, the unified and
choreographed sound and movement, the cult of personality and
hostility all ring familiar, not to mention the aggressive revival
and stoking of nationalism and xenophobia in the wake of 9/11
and economic recession.
Perhaps it is best not to tackle this issue by asking an absolute

question, but by referring to the history of Fascist politics looking
for its remnants in the contemporary world. For example, the
possibility of a single individual, like a Fuhrer, ruling supreme in
the US is not likely and certainly does not seem to be a possibility
at present. However, are there substitutes or alternate incarna-
tions and are our conceptions of Fascism stereotyped by the his-
torically recent experience of the Third Reich?32 There is a
distinct possibility, as critical scholars have pointed out, that Fas-
cism allows for public forms of popular expression while still
maintaining exploitation: Fascisim is effective because it makes
itself disappear into the fabric of the everyday.
While this is not the specific place to interrogate this question
in its entirety, noise plays an important role in fascist politics.
According to Benjamin, Fascism's goal is to preserve the exploita-
tive system of property while allowing the victimized masses of
this system a mode of expression. He estates that, "Fascism seeks
to give them [the masses] an expression while preserving prop-
erty. The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics
into political life," (241). Later he gives an extensive quote from
Italian Futurist Marinetti on the beautiful aesthetics of war,
which he cites as the logical outcome of Fascism, the spectacle of

34.192.2.131 on Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:55:03 UTC
watching our own demise with aesthe

thoughtless spectacle masks the worki
There are a few points that this essay
fleshing out in relation to a particu
First is the fact that politics are thoro
there really is no question (and I h
demonstrated part of the auditory ae
min, this is necessary for Fascism to
ture, the celebrity system and its sty
politics, aestheticizing everything in
speeches in front of a mural of swayi
lapel pins, dramatic entrances and ex
sic, slumming in neighborhood bars a
prayers, and stylized photos that sell
dence, not only of this occurrence, b
tory in politics.
Benjamin also equates the celebrity s
personality," which acts in much the sam
commodity. They whose visages grace
amplified and obscured as the theolog
by the phony spell - the fetish - of
acting, according to Benjamin, is app
as part of the natural world, as the
prose. The boasts of honesty, integri
spells cast by politics in the age of m
litical oratory can be noise as it is
when it fully reaches its potential, it
This then brings me to my final poi
the expressions that are allowed to
plan to blow the gasket of dissent wh
of private property? Noise, while bein
chine, fails en route to being an ex
While it is true that Marinetti and other Futurists aestheticized
the sound of the machine and war as beautiful noise, it was then
of an entirely different sort. Noise in their sense was ideologically
articulate; it enunciated the sounds of both the present and fu-
ture as the West pursued the colonization, industrialization and
exploitation of the globe. The sound of war was the aesthetic of
dominance and control, singular purpose and ultimate sacrifice.

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Fascist noise was that of the machine, man manipulating steel

and manipulating other men with steel.
Noise in this context is inarticulate and to some extent ulti-
mately unfulfilling as a release, necessitating future exchanges.
Even as the sonic embrace, as philosopher/psychologist William
James refers to applause, it is an affection without nuance, clarity
and dialogue. It is destined to be fruitless and fails to produce
even the false release gained from subjecting others to your
noise. The cacophonous blob of supporters is not an indepen-
dent machine in itself, able to be manipulated by power, but part
of the machine of popularity and dominance. While the specta-
cle of thousands rallying dumbstruck and only mechanically ar-
ticulate in front of one ethereal leader may revive feelings of
dread and fear of totalitarianism, the noise that is produced is far
from being a full expression of the masses and is not the sound
that that can consistently and paradoxically aid the silencing of
dissent. Noise may be a particularly persuasive expression of
emotional dedication and support, but its mechanical reproduc-
ibility and fickle nature reduces the impact that it has at the
point of production, necessitating spin rather than just rhetoric.
The more articulate collective and individual expressions of
which Benjamin may be referring (imagine Benjamin's horror at
witnessing Fascist and anti-Semitic propaganda and its reproduc-
tion in daily life) perhaps served as a more expressive valve, and
ironically allowed for a more total control of social life than the
democratic noise of fervent applause does.
This is not to say that the shadow of fascism does not loom
particularly large as politics goes global and instant networks now
play a role in the fabulation of political giants. Now more than
ever does the possibility of totalitarianism loom as sounds, images
and ideas go viral and reach the far recesses of the world. How-
ever, the ultimate harbinger of the new Fascism can not be noise,
it will be silence. Fascism seeks to imitate the machine, and will
continue as our machines shrink, grow quiet and faintly re-organ-
ize and regulate our lives. In that endeavor it will become small
and reticent, and we will find that we can not live without it.
In our contemporary moment, we find Russolo's democratiz-
ing of noise, a project deeply embedded in the valorizing of the
ordinary by injecting noise into European concert halls, in a very
different articulation. The composition of noise has been democ-

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ratized only in that we are all the fickl

performers, while the composers and or
tive cacophony are the political elite, no
Noise has become essential in the arti
of politics, the construction of the cand
rhetoric and spin. We are living in a son
noise, with its careful production, post-
aesthetic force with material effects an
public policy.
NOTES
1. Out of courtesy, all of the personal names in this document have been
changed.
2. One unexplored element of Russolo's treatise is that he was one of the few
"art music" composer who advocated for an ethnographic method for inspi-
ration for composition.
3. See Russolo, Luigi, The Art of Noises. New York: Pendragon Press, 1986. Rus-
solo was in no way universal with his assessment of the contemporary situa-
tion. His theories reflected his experience in modern Europe, especially
the experiences of World War Two and his assumptions about labor and
the concert hall.
4. Barclay Brown (in Russolo, Luigi, cited above) makes the point that the
Futurists' aesthetics were adapted by Dada despite their outward disputes. It
is also the case that some noises have been incorporated into concert music
at different points in the mid-to-late 20th century. With the notable excep-
tion of Edgar Várese' s Deserts, these noises have more often than not been
additive and not constitutive in nature, with compositions still focusing on
traditional instrumentation and using noises for effect. Worth noting are
the experiments by composer John Cage in the realm of everyday noise as
composition. In Cage's case, however, he was more interested in the prac-
tice of listening to the already existing sound as music rather than creating
it for the concert hall by mechanical reproduction.
5. See Donna Haraway's The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Sig-
nificant Otherness. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003.
6. Quoted in Currid, Brian, 2006.
7. See Bull, Michael in Erlmann, 2004. In his sub-heading "The Aesthetic Na-
ture of Mobile Aural Solipsism," Bull states that, "Walkmans are used as
both mundane accompaniments to the everyday experience and as a way of
aestheticizing and controlling that very experience. Their use greatly ex-
pands the possibilities for users to aesthetically re-create their daily experi-
ence." When actively re-packaged and re-played at will, even political
rhetoric serves to fulfill personal aesthetics (even is those tastes and feelings
are interpellated).
8. Bakhtin, M.M. The Dialogic Imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press,
1981. Also see Volosinov, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Cam-
bridge: Harvard University Press, 1973.

34.192.2.131 on Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:55:03 UTC
9. The Sapir-Whorff hypothesis most basically theorizes that our reactions to

the world, as well as our greater, overall abstract worldview is deeply shaped
and impacted by the language (s) that we speak and use to describe it. This
theory was ridiculed when it was first introduced but underwent a renais-
sance in the 1980s and is now an understood part of much of social linguis-
tics and linguistic anthropology.
10. Ladd, Sowell and Shannon, 1990, introduction.
11. I refer to the 1960 elections which featured Kennedy and Nixon on televi-
sion and the most recent cycle which featured the internet being used by
campaigns and the public in such a way that it was a political necessity. I can
hardly imagine a successful national campaign, or a state-wide election in
most states, without the savvy use of the internet.
12. See Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large, Minnesota, 1996 or Appadurai,
"Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" in Theory,
Culture and Society, vol. 7 1990. Appadurai identifies the ways in which infor-
mation and ideas flow across prescribed boundaries, one of which is
through electronic means, or 'technoscapes'. Although state boundaries
are not what Appadurai had in mind, given the specificity of both cam-
paigns towards specific states and demographic groups, in many ways this
theory applies to the operation of 2008 presidential campaigns.
13. Connor, Feel the Noise.
14. For a more in-depth discussion of the many overlapping definitions of
noise, see Justin Patch, Casting Spells, Casting Ballots: Magic, Affect, Noise and
Music in Political Campaigns. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin,
2009.
15. See Connor, cited above. For radio, A National Acoustics, Currid's complex
discussion of radio in Nazi Germany, while pushing against totalizing no-
tions of "Nazi Music" also reinforces the notion, shared by many at the
time, that control of the airwaves was a key battle ground. Also see Christo-
pher Dunn's Hello, Hello Brazil for a similar discussion of radio in Vargas-era
Brazil. Likewise, Trish Rose's Black Noise and Norman StoltzofFs Wake the
Town and Tell the People deal with control, albeit temporary, or space
through extreme amplification of music.
16. Quoted in Connor, Feel the Noise, pg. 149. Connor, Ihde, Erlmann, Hen-
riques and Stoltzoff all address the connection between the ear and the
body.
17. John Cage's 4'33" (1952) was a piece with no music, meant partially to in-
duce the turning of the attentive and perceptive concert-ear to ordinary
sounds. In performance, a musician sets up as if to play, but does not for
four minutes and thirty three seconds.
18. Feel the Noise, pg. 151, quoting Connor, 1997.
19. Barack Obama s campaign was particularly adept at photographing and
taping him in front of crowds. His campaign videos, especially in the final
month of the campaign and in his longer on-line ads, often showed him
speaking to throngs of thousands or surrounded by supporters on the
street. Their framing of his image on tape is quite remarkable, very artistic
and persuasive. There is even one video that is tagged on you tube as "high-
lights from the Obama movement," quite a telling phrase about the cam-
paign's self-conception.
20. Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power. NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1962.
21. Idhe, Don. Auditory Imagination, from The Auditory Culture Reader, Bull
and Back eds.

34.192.2.131 on Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:55:03 UTC
22. The idea of getting spun is taken up

scribe this ethnography as the experien
by the ideas, buzz words, talking points
or interest. The experience of getting sp
which is the definition in the business t
incorporation of the discourse, structur
cies of that interest. As a mechanism, g
tional elements of the political campaign
and searches to produce opinion, feelin
23. Ibid. p. 179
24. Connor, Stephen. The Help of Your Goo
and Black. Full citation
25. In the following chapter, I address the issue of dumbness as it applies to
modern political culture.
26. For more on magic and politics see Patch, cited above, chapter 5, Political
Magic, I delve into the enchantment, mysticism, transformation, illusion
and self-delusion that are an integral part of political campaigning.
27. See Deleuze, The Fold, Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1993. Deleuze lik-
ened the fold to a labyrinth and to cloth. The labyrinth of the soul was
infinite and could be indefinitely explored, which I liken to the revisiting
and re-telling of memories, which inevitably are changed by different social
factors. The other definition is equally appropriate: the ways in which ob-
jects are folded together, like cloth. The folds re-con textualize and re-make
the partner as they do themselves, fitting together and shaping new percep-
tions, viewpoints and positions.
28. This is the definition for enchanted taken from
www.wordnet.princeton.edu: influenced by charms or incant
29. Antonio Damasio has done quite a bit to prove that
through both logic and feelings. Without the ability to fe
is considered to be "rational" thought is impossible. Unn
dresses this conflation in relation to Balinese philosophie
nected nature of logic and emotion.
30. I thank Prof. Jim Buhler for this pun, and for his guidan
and indeed much of my ideas in this report.
31. Serow et al., The American Polity Reader. NY: Norton, 19
32. Brian Currid points out that expressive culture and its
tuses in Nazi Germany were sites of contestation even l
World War. What this opens up is the real possibility t
about Fascism, its absolute power and control, is not its ex
and in fact Fascism persuasive articulations may be comm
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THE ART OF NOISE: Hearing, Feeling and Experiencing the Sound of Democracy

Author(s): Justin Patch

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41179250

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Hearing, Feeling and Experiencing the Soun

The roar of the crowd was otherworldly, shaking Investco Field

Tn 1913, young Italian Futurist composer and inventor Luigi

Justin Patch is a Lecturer in the Department of Music at Tufts University.

Soundings 92.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2009). ISSN 0038-1861.

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with these machines; he reacts emoti

Political noise is nothing if not composed and orchestrated,

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heir to, we as the participants are partial creators of the perform-

We often hear that democracy is messy, as is only fitting for the

While I would not draw the conclusion that we are staring

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and film, we have become our own inhuman other. We are

The Political You

One of the most delicious ambiguities in the English la

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of liberalism - with negligible impact from political movements

During the 2008 presidential campaing, as the term "grassroots

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You gathered in offices, meeting room

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Noise: Power and Pliability

Investigation into the term 'Noise' finds it used in a gre

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pears in the languages of stock trader

subjugates and weakens, along with distorting and hampering

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defining our parameters for noise, including and excluding as

However obscuring noise may be it does possess a special

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the experience, modified by the magn

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duced by the spin doctors and speech writers of the campaign,

ing, that the opposition is too great in number; from within we

Politics is filled with noise in both conventional and metaphor-

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body and mind, spirit and ideology. The

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You; the latter grows and multiplie

Philosopher Don Idhe (1976/2003), in his work on the

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tion and inter-relation with a social other that is unwanted and

unable to be successfully or creatively integrated into the present

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in the sensation of hearing ourselves mu

Idhe also asserts that we hear ourselves differently, that we feel

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architectural feats. In the pack, we feel resonances deeper than

If we believe Idhe's insistence that we hear ourselves differ-

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to the children of his audience by ha

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mandates. Indeed our minds are influenced by these charms and

You: Combining Noise and Signal

At this point, after two years of research and fieldwork, I migh

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