Early this year, we published Noise Matters: Towards an Ontology of Noise, a wide-reaching and provocative examination of the philosophical dimensions and cultural manifestations of noise, which garnered a bevy of intellectual responses from various corners of the noise universe, from noise makers and noise thinkers alike.
In the text, author Greg Hainge (Reader in French and Head of the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia) sets out to define noise, to find within it a series of operations common across its multiple manifestations that allow us to apprehend it as something other than a highly subjective term that tells us very little. Examining a wide range of texts, including Sartre’s novel Nausea and David Lynch’s iconic films Eraserhead and Inland Empire, Hainge investigates some of the Twentieth Century’s most infamous noisemongers to suggest that they’re not that noisy after all; and it finds true noise in some surprising places. The result is a thrilling and illuminating study of sound and culture.
Since its release, the book has been making rounds–quite literally. Noise Matters has been spotted in book shops and museum stores across the globe, and we have photographic proof (see below). Have you seen Noise Matters in your local book store? Tweet us a pic! And pick up a copy, while you’re at it.
