Acoustic territories. Labell B.

Moving around the city, we often rely on vision, not paying attention to the fact that we are constantly pursued by the tremendous variety of everyday noise. Offering to trust the hearing, the American culturalist Brandon Labell shows how much our experience and the surrounding reality are dependent on the sound landscape. In the logic of “acoustic territories” proposed by him, the sound becomes not just a background of everyday life, but an organizing force that can set new outlines of social, political and cultural activity.

relying on a poetic metaphor, Labelle explores different levels of city life, literally rushing from the bottom up - from the rumble of the subway to the radio waves in the sky. As a result, we have before us one of the most striking books that unites social anthropology, urbanism, philosophy and theory of art and, thanks to this, helps to find out what role the sound plays in the formation of the private and public spheres of our existence.