Sound Pressure

How Speaker Systems Influence, Manipulate and Torture

Toby Heys

Sound Pressure reveals how speaker systems mounted in public, employment, military and entertainment environments have played a pivotal role in the way that humans have been physiologically and psychologically organised and disciplined throughout the past century. The networked Wired Radio speakers of the 1920’s industrialised factory, acoustically anchor a narrative based on the functional utilisation of sound systems for insidious purposes; from the surround-sound techniques of the Waco siege, to the application of sonic torture in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. Crucially, Sound Pressure identifies the logic behind the miniaturisation and disappearance of visible sound system technologies as they transmute into the ultrasonic dynamics of the Hypersonic Sound System and covert bone conduction techniques of Whispering Windows. The book charts an evolution of speaker technology that has been, and will be, used to influence, manipulate and torture the collective and isolated body. It amplifies the connections between LRADs, iPods, Mosquitos, Intonarumori, loudhailers, and Sequential Arc Discharge Acoustic Generators - the meta-network of speaker systems through which rhythms and cadences of power are transmitted, connected, and modulated.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 232 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-78661-112-3 • Hardback • July 2019 • $147.00 • (£113.00)

978-1-5381-4794-8 • Paperback • August 2023 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

Series: Media Philosophy

Subjects: Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects, Philosophy / Aesthetics, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy, Philosophy / Philosophy of Technology, Philosophy / Social

Sound Pressure

How Speaker Systems Influence, Manipulate and Torture

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

Sound Pressure reveals how speaker systems mounted in public, employment, military and entertainment environments have played a pivotal role in the way that humans have been physiologically and psychologically organised and disciplined throughout the past century. The networked Wired Radio speakers of the 1920’s industrialised factory, acoustically anchor a narrative based on the functional utilisation of sound systems for insidious purposes; from the surround-sound techniques of the Waco siege, to the application of sonic torture in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. Crucially, Sound Pressure identifies the logic behind the miniaturisation and disappearance of visible sound system technologies as they transmute into the ultrasonic dynamics of the Hypersonic Sound System and covert bone conduction techniques of Whispering Windows. The book charts an evolution of speaker technology that has been, and will be, used to influence, manipulate and torture the collective and isolated body. It amplifies the connections between LRADs, iPods, Mosquitos, Intonarumori, loudhailers, and Sequential Arc Discharge Acoustic Generators - the meta-network of speaker systems through which rhythms and cadences of power are transmitted, connected, and modulated.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 232 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-78661-112-3 • Hardback • July 2019 • $147.00 • (£113.00)

978-1-5381-4794-8 • Paperback • August 2023 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

Series: Media Philosophy

Subjects: Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects, Philosophy / Aesthetics, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy, Philosophy / Philosophy of Technology, Philosophy / Social

Author

Toby Heys is a Reader in Digital Technologies at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is also an affiliate researcher within Hexagram in Montreal, Canada. He is a member of the sonic research unit AUDINT, which produces art installations, vinyl records, performances, and books such as the upcoming Unsound:Undead anthology on Univocal.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword: Speakers by Dave Tompkins

Introduction: Frequency-Based Force

Chapter 1: Muzak’s Influence in the Fordist Factory

Chapter 2: Surround Sound Manipulation at the Waco Siege

Chapter 3: Torture in Black Ecstasy at Guantánamo Bay

Chapter 4: The Covert Aims of Directional Ultrasound

Chapter 5: Whispering to Talking Windows

Conclusion: Phantom Sound Systems

Bibliography

Reviews

A compelling account of a mutating, planetary network of speaker systems, and their complicity in cybernetic societies of control.

— Steve Goodman

Sound Pressure

How Speaker Systems Influence, Manipulate and Torture

Toby Heys

Sound Pressure

How Speaker Systems Influence, Manipulate and Torture

ALSO AVAILABLE