Sound Affects

We live in a saturated sonic envirornment. Noise is everywhere; and even at the extreme of absence, “silence is a rhythm too” (as the Slits once sang). Yet we rarely pay attention to the soundscape that accompanies us at all times. Sound Affects rectifies this omission, with seventeen essays about sound and how it touches and moves us. Topics range from rapping by Kanye West, to the noises made by urban traffic, to electronic distortions broadcast through gigantic speakers, to the barely audible squishes of worms crawling through the soil. All in all, this book brings us back to a heightened awareness of those aspects of existence that we tend, all too easily, to tune out. * Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University, USA *As it heeds paradoxical challenges in addressing sensorial – or even “sensaural” – experiences that defy conventional representation and meaning, Sound Affects embraces multiple approaches to sound, affect and sound affect through its volume of rich and varied voices. Vitally, Sound Affects promotes an ethics of listening that fundamentally and ontologically examines our too human world. * Nadine Boljkovac, Screen Theorist and Assistant Professor in Film Studies, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA *

Sharon Jane Mee is Adjunct Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Luke Robinson is a PhD candidate and a casual academic in the School of Arts and Media, University of New South Wales, Australia.