The Sonic Persona: An Anthropology of Sound
The third and final main point that Schulze makes in this book is that sonic critique is always political in nature, especially in today’s culture, where much listening is done through technology. This technology is never neutral, but transforms the nature of sound and listening. Sound technology is what Schulze calls a poem of processing (92), a translation of sound instead of a transparant means of sonic transmission. That is why the analysis of musical performance, for instance, should always include a focus on the technology that is used in that perfomance. The material and technological sides of performance are never accidental, but fundamental to performance, both in the way it is created and how it is perceived by an audience . Moreover, through technology the micro-decisions one makes at at daily basis can be manipulated, “[…] by way of sensory preferences and routines, by way of inclinations and aversions that you and I might tend to follow” (163). It is this kind ...