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Sound, Knowledge and Space: the reggae sound system as an apparatus for the production of affective intensities (Crowds, Affects, Cities Seminar Series)

Wednesday 27th January, 2021

13:00-14:00, Zoom (registration required)

Professor Julian Henriques, Wednesday 27th January 1pm, Zoom

Recommended background viewing: 
Sound System Outernational #5 Naples, Italy (Astarbene, 2020,12 min)
https://vimeo.com/396139747
 
This talk proposes that sound waves, auditory mechanics and the propagation of sounding provide a useful model for understanding the production and transmission of affect. Feelings are literally vibratory. It takes the Jamaican dancehall sound system session as an apparatus for the production affective intensities. Here the audio engineers developed the highly skilled knowledge and practices, that I name as phonomorphic (sound-shaping) techniques, with which they use frequencies and amplitudes to “engineer” the vibes of the crowd. While from ancient times it has been appreciated that music communicates feelings and is freighted with emotions and associations, I argue that the sounding of the music provides an excellent analogue for the feeling of affect; both are non-representational. With the shared social experience of the space of the dancehall session volume (dB) or pressure equates with affective intensity, pitch with charge or excitement, auditory diffusion with affective transmission and rhythm or refrain with entrainment and attunement. “Feeling moved” and moving (dance) become different sides of the same coin. This dynamic situated, embodies and shared vibratory approach can be contrasted with more familiar visual relationships of reflection and gaze structured by the single point of view.

This event is part of the 2020-2021 seminar series Crowds Affects, Cities, jointly convened by the Centre for the History of the Emotions and the QMUL City Centre. To register your interest, please contact one of the convenors: Tiffany Watt Smith (t.k.watt-smith@qmul.ac.uk), Regan Koch (r.koch@gmail.com), and Pen Woods (p.woods@qmul.ac.uk).