Sonic Agency

Brandon LaBelle is Professor in New Media in the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at theUniversity of Bergen. He is the author of Lexicon of the Mouth- Poetics and Politics of Voice and the Oral Imaginary, Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian, Acoustic Territories- Sound Culture and Everyday Life, and Background Noise- Perspectives on Sound Art.

"With poignant examples, philosophical acumen and palpable care, Sonic Agency probes the depth of sound in social life for what it can humanly (and nonhumanly) do, helping readers understand the politics of the always audible but rarely heard." Deborah Kapchan, Associate Professor of Performance Studies at New York University "Sonic Agency presents a passionate attempt at thinking through questions of the emergence of publics and counterpublics - of coming together in a world that isolates us." Nora Sternfeld, Professor of Practice, Aalto University "LaBelle is correct to stress that the public sphere is usually imagined and understood in relation to visibility, and far less often in relation to sound. Sound offers a way into thinking about who and what is unseen, and appears, on the surface, to offer a more radical, if harder to grasp conception of what insurrectionary politics might look, or rather sound, like." Nina Power, The Wire "he broad set of references and overlapping thematics make Sonic Agency rich and intellectually accessible. Having again read LaBelles Acoustic Territories recently, it is fascinating to see how Sonic Agency, clearly entwined with LaBelles anarchist and non-violent politics and ethics, not only takes up and expounds upon a few of the ideas briefly mentioned in the former but also acts as an enriching theoretical companion to the earlier books more socio-historical focus." Johnny Herbert, Journal of Sonic Studies