SONIC FACTION

I got a digital care package from Hyperdub the other week. (Thanks, Marcus!)

Sonic Faction presents… the ways in which sound and voice can produce new sensory terrains and provoke speculative thought.

… a discussion of the potential of the ‘audio essay’ as medium and method, a machine for intensifying listening and unsettling the boundaries between existing forms: documentary, music, ambient sound, audiobook, field recording, radio play….

Very much in my recent zone, as you can probably tell. From the introduction (which I captured by pointing a Rabbit r1 at the screen and telling it to transcribe what it saw):

While some of the texts here set out from one or another of these existing forms as a point from which to approach the audio essay, all testify to its specificity in terms of cognitive possibilities, discursive scope, and auditory experience, while making it abundantly clear that its potential remains largely underexplored.

The audio essay! A fascinating form. Still alive on national broadcasting here, and in podcasting (the Heyoon episode of 99% Invisible stays with me all these years later), and, apparently, in gallery installations? What else could the form do? Anyway. I could go on about this forever. Good book.

It’s out in a month or two, and you can order direct from Urbanomic or pre-order from Amazon (UK) (US) for November.