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Noise and Capitalism
- GenresMusicPhilosophy
Paperback
First published September 1, 2009
About the author
Anthony Iles
14 books1 followerAnthony Iles is a writer of criticism, fiction and theory. He currently is assistant editor of Mute, an online and quarterly print magazine, http://metamute.org, a project coordinator of the Post-Media Lab at Leuphana University and an Associate Researcher at the UDK Graduate School.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 3, 2013
While the book shows some mixed quality in writing and production, it offers a fascinating variety of approaches to its topic. Great starting points for thinking about an elusive art.
I would like to have seen more from women contributors, and more on women performers. In their dearth, Nina Power's effort came off like a token.
Most favorites: Russell, Webster.
Least favorites: Prévost, Power, Mattin on copyright (the latter because it needed another pass by a copyeditor before going to press).
The PDF is freely available. Go make some noise.
I would like to have seen more from women contributors, and more on women performers. In their dearth, Nina Power's effort came off like a token.
Most favorites: Russell, Webster.
Least favorites: Prévost, Power, Mattin on copyright (the latter because it needed another pass by a copyeditor before going to press).
The PDF is freely available. Go make some noise.
May 3, 2013
bruce russell essay is fantastic
Read
June 14, 2026I learned so much from this, and I was surprised at how engaging I found all the contributions! Admittedly I knew very little about the world this collection comes out of, which is perhaps why I learned so much from it. While this world is largely unknown to me, the usual suspects of that world gradually become known to the reader, which is a fun experience because it means you're actually learning something. There is a sense of entering an existing conversation and slowly becoming familiar with its 'usual suspects', and I found that very nice.
Reading writings by artists more often has made me realise how differently they engage with concepts than the academics or more classical theorists I am accustomed to. This may definitely be obvious or even trite to mention, but I want to state it here regardless as this is part of this book's strength as well: it is very engaging seeing the small sentences or paragraphs that are meant to spur thinking, alongside works of fuller texts, and noticing when exactly I "tune in" or "drop out" instead. I found these texts much more engaging and interesting, for instance, than Pauline Oliveros' writings, although admittedly some fault of that may be my own because I do believe her writings may not be intended as "texts", so to say, but as something inexorably connected to the praxes themselves (though I may be wrong about that as well, in which case I simply did not like them).
These texts, however, do work as texts. There is some disparity in terms of how well the texts work as texts between contributions, but I think that is also part of what makes the collection as such 'work'. I also liked that the authors include texts about one another. They are all nice essays in their own right, and it is interesting to see how differently theory can be engaged with stylistically by each of the contributors, and it is these idiosyncrasies that also made the collection enjoyable.
Admittedly there is a lack of "representation" (no pun intended) as, as far as I can gather, all except one of the contributors are white men. Whether this is consequential I cannot say, and the collection does provide further reading on Black, feminist, and queer approaches. Essentially, because this is such a vast world of praxes and theory that I simply do not know, I appreciated the collection as a very insightful introduction into this corner of knowledge and found it valuable as such.
>> I particularly liked the texts by Edwin Prévost and Nina Power. It was nice to end on mattin's specific text. I also want to return to Howard Slater's contribution because a lot is happening there and I suspect it would reward further reading.
So, to put it in fewer words: I learned a great deal, and in a nice way!
Reading writings by artists more often has made me realise how differently they engage with concepts than the academics or more classical theorists I am accustomed to. This may definitely be obvious or even trite to mention, but I want to state it here regardless as this is part of this book's strength as well: it is very engaging seeing the small sentences or paragraphs that are meant to spur thinking, alongside works of fuller texts, and noticing when exactly I "tune in" or "drop out" instead. I found these texts much more engaging and interesting, for instance, than Pauline Oliveros' writings, although admittedly some fault of that may be my own because I do believe her writings may not be intended as "texts", so to say, but as something inexorably connected to the praxes themselves (though I may be wrong about that as well, in which case I simply did not like them).
These texts, however, do work as texts. There is some disparity in terms of how well the texts work as texts between contributions, but I think that is also part of what makes the collection as such 'work'. I also liked that the authors include texts about one another. They are all nice essays in their own right, and it is interesting to see how differently theory can be engaged with stylistically by each of the contributors, and it is these idiosyncrasies that also made the collection enjoyable.
Admittedly there is a lack of "representation" (no pun intended) as, as far as I can gather, all except one of the contributors are white men. Whether this is consequential I cannot say, and the collection does provide further reading on Black, feminist, and queer approaches. Essentially, because this is such a vast world of praxes and theory that I simply do not know, I appreciated the collection as a very insightful introduction into this corner of knowledge and found it valuable as such.
>> I particularly liked the texts by Edwin Prévost and Nina Power. It was nice to end on mattin's specific text. I also want to return to Howard Slater's contribution because a lot is happening there and I suspect it would reward further reading.
So, to put it in fewer words: I learned a great deal, and in a nice way!
August 6, 2015
I laughed, several times
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews