The Spatial Politics of ‘Noise'

This paper attends to sounds and noises as sociocultural phenomena taking place in everyday sonic environments. If noise is considered as sound that is out of place, then how and where does this evaluation transpire in order for noise to qualify as an aural transgression? In defining what constitutes as sound or noise, the process also involves locating how noise is dealt with in different places that we inhabit (public space as shared/private space), at different levels (small/large-scale) and by different social actors (individuals, groups, social institutions etc). Cases of auditory altercations in urbanity will be analysed in order to demonstrate how sounds and noises acquire socio-cultural valences in the ways that urbanites regard and utilise spaces in city life. By interrogating how places are experienced and contested vis-à-vis auditory encounters, the paper attempts to shed light on the relationship between sound, noise, and sociality in place, and also illuminates how aural information structure social positionings, divisions and hierarchies in everyday life.