A talk for the Aural Diversities programme at Goldsmiths.
“Declassified World War Two documents in the National Archives use terminology such as ‘Camouflage ‘B’,’ ‘Aural Deception,’ ‘Sonic Deception,’ ‘Sonic Warfare’ and ‘Soniferous Deception’ to describe strategies intended to deceive enemy ears; contrasting historical systems were deployed to amplify and augment battlefield listening. Such processes of aural deception and attunement develop earlier technologies and they still persist across many contemporary milieu to provide direct parallels in the US military language of “the Sound of Freedom” and in Sung Tieu’s artworks related to the Havana Syndrome phenomenon. In the context of this series on Aural Diversity, rethinking these historical and contemporary approaches also allows for problematisations of audio-normativity, listening virtuosity and the ear as site of authority”.
