A Poetics of Interruption: fugitive speech acts and the politics of noise Andrew Brooks Doctor of Philosophy UNSW Art and Design 2017 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname or Family name: Brooks First name: Andrew Other name/s: Navin Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: PhD School: UNSW Art and Design Faculty: UNSW Art and Design Title: A Poetics of Interruption: fugitive speech acts and the politics of noise Abstract This thesis investigates interruption, arguing that it is a generative and constructive force in contemporary aesthetics and politics. Organised around the figures of murmur, stutter, gossip and hum, which I identify as fugitive speech acts, the thesis approaches the problem of interruption from the nexus of the sonic and the textual, drawing from contemporary media, sound and poetry. These everyday ‘minor’ figures are activated by and feed back into an ontogenetic noise that both conditions and transforms systems and relations. Developing noise as a conceptual category, the thesis considers these minor figures in relation to questions of power, race, sociality and collectivity. This study proposes a poetics of interruption in concert with a politics of noise that together suggest new, interdisciplinary approaches to reading and listening to contemporary media. In particular, it reads with Michel Serres, Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, Gilles Deleuze, Felix́ Guattari and Saidiya Hartman, developing a theory of noise as a force of interruption that acts upon the socio-political order. The thesis comprises four long chapters that articulate the fugitive speech acts. Murmur is read as an indistinct noise of many individuating voices sounding at once; a sonic figure that moves toward a heterogeneous conception of dissensual collectivity. The stutter is an interruption to the idealised, individualised voice and the perceived stability of communication; it sets language on a process of continuous variation, interrupting its majoritarian ordering and opening a space to forge ‘minor’ archives. Gossip emerges as noisy, networked speech that circulates in excess of official discourse and gives rise to proto-socialities. Hum detects the noisiness of networked culture, located, counterintuitively, in the interruptive modalities of networked distraction and boredom, and refigures these modalities as haptic and collective modes of (media) perception. Tracking these interruptive figures as they appear in experimental poetry, sonic art and contemporary media, the thesis reads work by artists and writers such as Claudia Rankine, M. NourbeSe Philip, Amanda Stewart and Tan Lin and examines media environments such as ‘Black Twitter.’ Collectively, these works attend to the forces of interruption that emerge from the intersection of sound and language. Such interruptions generate states of suspended animation from which alternate conceptions of sociality and perception can be considered. This thesis develops strategies for reading and listening to (and with) these works as noises that multiply generate a poetics of interruption. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). …………………………………………………… ……………………………………..……… …………...……. Signature Witness Signature Date The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances and require the approval of the Dean of Graduate Research. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award: ORIGINALITY STATEMENT 'I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.' Signed .................................................. 29.08.2017 Date .................................................. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 'I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed .................................................. Date .................................................. AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT 'I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.' Signed .................................................. Date .. ............................. table of contents acknowledgements i list of images iii abstract iv introduction 1 The Parasite 10 Sonic Figures and Fugitive Speech Acts 14 Listening / Reading 17 Resonances 21 A Poetics of Interruption 23 murmur 28 Originating Murmurs and Original Murmurings 30 Affective Noise 38 The Murmur of the Crowd 42 The Micropolitics of the Murmur 57 A Poetics of Murmur 60 stutter 70 Noisy Exchange in the Mouth of the Parasite 76 Stuttering the Archive 95 Into the Void 111 gossip 116 "Have you heard..." 116 Signal / Noise 120 Toward a (socio-epistemology for the) Undercommons 122 Inscription / Capture 129 Networked Gossip 133 Riot 142 hum 159 Ubiquitous Listening / Ubiquitous Reading 165 Books as Environments 174 Boredom 183 Channel Surfing 189 coda 199 bibliography 204 acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the land that I live and work on. This thesis was written on land that was never ceded. Thank you to my supervisor, Anna Munster, for getting my thinking to move. I am deeply grateful for her generosity and rigour, the fierceness of her intellect has been a constant source of inspiration. She has encouraged my roaming research interests and reigned me in when it looked as if I might get tangled in them. Her influence, as both a mentor and a friend, has been integral to this project. Thank you also to Caleb Kelly, who provided valuable support and encouragement in the early stages of this project. Thank you to everyone at UNSW Art and Design for creating a wonderful and nourishing intellectual community. In particular, I want to thank the members of the Art and Politics Bureau for forging a space of criticality and solidarity despite the increasing difficulty of doing so in the modern university. A big thank you must go to all the students I have had the privilege of sharing the classroom with over the past few years. The experience of teaching has been central to conceiving of a life in academia and the loop between teaching and research has been both productive and invigorating. I am endlessly inspired by the politics of ‘young’ people and many of the ideas that appear in this thesis are inflected by conversations that have occurred in (and around) the classroom. A special thanks must go to Tim Gregory, who has been an incredible support in all facets of life. I have learnt an immeasurable amount from working alongside Tim and am ever inspired by his dedication to students, friends and ideas. I met Tim during the course of this project and feel lucky to now call him a friend. Thank you to my family for their unwavering support and love. Thank you to my parents whose door is always open, and to my sister who demonstrates the deepest level of care for loved ones in everything she does. Shout out to my niece, Frankie, who came into the world halfway through this project and is a total joy. Thank you my extended family: