I contend that the spatialities resulting from the juxtaposition of consuming sonic technologies and being consumed by them suggest specifically modern ways of be(com)ing in the world. These modes of subjectivity differ from the ones outlined in the preceding chapter as they arise from modern spatialities constituted through and magnifed by sonic technologies, rather than temporality; which is to say that while these subjectivities take place in time, the sounding spatialities of sonic Afro-modernity are what this chapter highlights more forcefully.... "Noise," as opposed to "music," disrupts the privacy of musical consumption; however, these categories are not as stable as they initial seem, since they are both heavily reliant on the perspective of the sonic consumer vis-à-vis the borders between "music" and "noise."
-Alexander G. Weheliye, from Phonographies: Grooves in Sonic Afro-Modernity (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), p. 107.
Good stuff from Alex. I am of course thinking about how his arguments intersect with my own writing on sound. Thanks for sharing it and all this other good stuff below. I'm slowly coming back to my blog. Been running, running.
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