Acoustic Justice: Listening, Performativity, and the Work of Reorientation

Description

Acoustic Justice maps an array of critical perspectives on what it means to listen. From the vibrational intensities of common life to the rhythm of bodies in movement, and drawing from his ongoing work on sound and agency, Brandon LaBelle positions listening as a privileged means for fostering empathy, compassion, and social attunement. As such, acoustic justice emerges as a compelling framework for engaging struggles over the right to speak and to be heard that extend toward a broader materialist and planetary view. This entails critically addressing questions of space, borders, community, and the acoustic norms defining cultures of listening, leading to what LaBelle terms “poetic ecologies of resonance.” By querying the field of deaf studies, Deafhood, and the legacies of audism, vertigo, and synesthesia, LaBelle pushes for acoustics as a politics of orientation. Title page Copyright page Contents Figures Holding, Healing, Attending: Toward Collaborative Living Chapter 1: Acoustic PerformativityPractices of Composition Chapter 2: Poetic Ecologies: Resonance, Imagination, Repair Chapter 3: Skin-Work: Queer Acoustics, Borderspaces,Economies of Desire Acoustic Support Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index