Acoustic Territories This page intentionally left blank Acoustic Territories SOUND CULTURE AND EVERYDAY LIFE by Brandon LaBelle 2010 The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc 80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038 The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX www.continuumbooks.com Copyright © 2010 by Brandon LaBelle All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers. ISBN 978-1-441-16136-9 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-441-15724-9 (hardcover) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data LaBelle, Brandon. Acoustic territories : sound culture and everyday life / by Brandon LaBelle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4411-5724-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4411-5724-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4411-6136-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4411-6136-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Sound in mass media. 2. Sound--Social aspects. 3. Performance art. I. Title. P96.S66L33 2010 306.4--dc22 2009042864 Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed in the United States of America Contents LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION Your Sound Is My Sound Is Your Sound xiii Sound Studies xix Acoustic Space xxi Acoustic Territories xxiii CHAPTER 1 Underground: Busking, Acousmatics, and the Echo 1 Underground Sonics 6 Underground Lives 19 Resistance 30 Echoic Listening 39 CHAPTER 2 Home: Ethical Volumes of Silence and Noise 43 Interiors 48 Suburb 54 Prison 66 Power 72 Gated 74 Acoustic Community 79 CHAPTER 3 Sidewalk: Steps, Gait, and Rhythmic Journey-Forms 85 Pedestrian Sounds 93 The Sonic Body 105 Riots, Street Fights, and Demonstrations 107 v vi z Contents Marching 116 Sidewalk Acoustics 123 CHAPTER 4 Street: Auditory Latching, Cars, and the Dynamics of Vibration 127 Vibrations 133 Beats below the Skin 137 Street Smarts 141 Taking It Low 145 Audible Identity 148 Boom Boom Boom 151 Slow Groove 160 CHAPTER 5 Shopping Mall: Muzak, Mishearing, and the Productive Volatility of Feedback 163 Muzak 170 Distracted Listening 179 Acoustic Politics 186 Airports 192 Atmospheres 198 CHAPTER 6 Sky: Radio, Spatial Urbanism, and Cultures of Transmission 201 Towering Visions 207 Transmission Culture 212 Media 220 Airy City 226 Pirate Radio, Pirate Territories 229 Spirits 231 Local and Global 238 NOTES 243 BIBLIOGRAPHY 259 INDEX 267 List of Illustrations IMAGE 1 Busker in the Berlin subway, 2009. Photo: the author. 10 IMAGE 2 CD seller in the subway, with speaker-backpack, Mexico City, 2009. Photo: Berenice Pardo. 20 IMAGE 3 Henry Moore, Tube Shelter Perspective: The Liverpool Street Extension, 1941. Reproduced by permission of The Henry Moore Foundation. 25 IMAGE 4 Exposed layout of a bomb shelter, USA, 1963. 30 IMAGE 5 Legendary pub Klamovka, meeting point of the Czech underground scene of the 1970s and 1980s, Prague 2009. Photo: the author. 35 IMAGE 6 Acconci Studio, Talking House, Home Show II, Santa Barbara, CA, 1996. 65 IMAGE 7 Acconci Studio, Talking House, Home Show II, Santa Barbara, CA, 1996. 66 IMAGE 8 Auburn State Prison, cell block, 1940s. Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Prisons. 69 IMAGE 9 Winslow Homer, “Watch-Tower, Corner of Spring and Varick Streets, New York,” from Harper’s Weekly, New York, February 28, 1874. Reproduced courtesy of The Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd., Philadelphia. 77 IMAGE 10 Jessica Thompson, Walking Machine, 2003 (omni-directional lapel microphones, mini amplifier, headphones), at Psy-Geo-Conflux, New York City, 2004. Photo: Joshua Weiner, courtesy of p|m Gallery, Toronto. 103 IMAGE 11 Romano, Falante, escultura sonora itinerante, Rio de Janeiro, 2007. Photo: Edouard de Fraipont. 105 IMAGE 12 Buekorps, marching through Bergen, Norway, 2009. 120 vii viii z List of Illustrations IMAGE 13 Jørgen Larsson, I Ringen (In the Ring), Borealis Festival, 2007. Photo: Thor Brødreskift. 122 IMAGE 14 Lowrider cars, Pharoah’s car show, Los Angeles, 2009. Photo: the author. 146 IMAGES 15 and 16 dB drag racing, event held at Media Markt, Flensburg, Germany, 2009. Photos: the author. 159 IMAGE 17 South Coast Plaza, shopping mall in Orange County, California, 2009. Photo: the author. 182 IMAGES 18 and 19 Ligna, Radio Ballet, Leipzig Central Station, 2003. Photos: Eiko Grimberg. 189 IMAGE 20 Anna Karin Rynander and Per-Olof Sandberg, Sound Showers, Oslo airport, installed 1998. Photo: the author. 196 IMAGE 21 Berlin TV Tower, Alexanderplatz, opened in 1969. Photo: the author. 211 IMAGE 22 Constant, New Babylon project (metal, plexiglass, wood), 1958. Photo: Jan Versnel. 217 IMAGE 23 Constant, New Babylon project (metal, plexiglass, wood), 1958. Photo: Jan Versnel. 218 IMAGE 24 Nicolas Schöffer, Chronos 8, installed 1982, Kalocsa, Hungary. Photo: the author. 221 IMAGE 25 Nicolas Schöffer, Chronos 8, installed 1982, Kalocsa, Hungary. Photo: the author. 222 IMAGE 26 Nicolas Schöffer, Tower of Liège, installed next to the Congress Palace, Liège, Belgium, 1961. 223 IMAGE 27 Friedrich Jürgenson, in his archive in Höör, Sweden, early 1980s. Photographer unknown. Courtesy: The Friedrich Jürgenson Foundation. 234 IMAGE 28 Carl Michael von Hausswolff, 1485.0kHz radio receiver, 2008. Constructed in Bucharest for the Ars Telephonica exhibition, and also used for the Birdcage project in Stockholm 2009 (edition of 7). Courtesy the artist and Gallery Niklas Belenius, Stockholm. Photo: Anca Benera. 235 Acknowledgments I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the colleagues and friends with whom I have had the pleasure to work and engage in many lively discussions over the recent years, and who have significantly influ- enced my involvement in the cultures of sound and sound thinking. Especially to the sound and radio studies group at the University of Copenhagen: Erik Granly Jensen, Tania Ørum, Marianne Ping Huang, Torben Sangild, Bente Larsen, and Jacob Kreutzfeldt, with whom I shared many thoughtful conversations and working days during my postdoctoral research fellowship. Through this fellowship, and within the generous framework of the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, I was able to elaborate upon my doctoral research and to further expand the scope of my work. I am also indebted to Mikkel Bogh for his support, and to Professor Doris Kolesch for her invitation to par- ticipate in the Department of Theater Studies at the Free University of Berlin. Sharing in the teaching of the Acoustic Territories seminar with her lent greatly to the final organization and understanding of my project. In this regard, I am also thoroughly appreciative of the assist- ance given by Maxi Loehmann, whose ceaseless energy was a constant source of support and enjoyment. In addition, I am grateful to Milos Vojtechovsky for his generous and personal help in exploring the history of the Prague Under- ground—visiting him in the winter of 2009 gave important insight for better understanding the Plastic People of the Universe and their music; also to Karel Cisar for offering his insightful thoughts on the underground cultures of Prague. Of course, such a project as this evolves organically over the course of years, involving not only primary research but also many small moments of generous listening and occasional mirroring on the ix x z Acknowledgments part of friends. With this in mind, I extend much affection to Ken Ehrlich, Octavio Camargo, Robin Wilson, Jennifer Gabrys, Barbara Penner, Maia Urstad, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, Ines Schaber, Lawrence English, and James Webb—I’m happy to have shared this writing with you even if at times you did not realize I was taking notes within my quiet thoughts. I would also like to thank David Barker of Continuum Books for his editorial patience and thoughtfulness, and for making the grueling task of publishing a pleasurable undertaking. Much of my work as a writer and researcher is inextricably tied to my practice as an artist. Through artistic projects I am given the chance to put to work various imaginings, and to weave together conceptual ideas with their performative materialization. Such a crossover is both a vital platform for finding points of involvement and interaction within culture, as well as a personal space for furthering my sense of place within these spheres of discourse and life. For this reason I am deeply grateful to those who have supported my artistic work over the recent years, in particular Georg Weckwerth, Sabine Breitsameter, Carsten Seiffarth, Enrico Fornello, Tuca Nissel and Debora Santiago, Margit Leisner, Alex Hamburger, Dorita Hannah, Christina Barton, Laura Preston, Marianne Bech, Tine Seligmann, Enrico Passetti, Rune Søchting, Carmen Cebreros Urzaiz, Chloé Fricout, Resonance FM, Kunstradio, Robert Worby, Richard Whitelaw, Micki, Marcus Gammel, General Public Berlin, Yvan Etienne, Bastien Gallet, Jørgen Larsson and Lydgalleriet Bergen, Frans Gillberg, and Mathias Holmberg. Finally, I would like to thank Paula Crabtree and Jeremy Welsh, along with the entire community of the National Academy of the Arts in Bergen, whose support and enthusiasm for my involvement in activities there continually give a boost to my feelings for future work and collaboration. I must also express my deep gratitude to Allen S. Weiss and Steven Connor from whom I continually gain much inspiration and support. Also, to Maria for being such a special person, and to Jan and Chuck for sharing in the ups and downs. And especially to Annette for our Acknowledgments z xi mornings with oatmeal and Deutschlandfunk, walks in the neighbor- hood, shared travels and journeys, inside and out, and who taught me the importance of being personal. * * * A number of chapters presented here, though extensively reworked, have appeared previously in published form. Chapter 3 was included in the anthology Performance Design, edited by Dorita Hannah and Olav Harsløf, and published by Museum Tusculanum Press, Denmark.