DISCUSSION: VOLUME, POWER & PROTEST

This discussion considers the relationship between noise and the unruly crowd, as well as methods of crowd control that treat noise as a form of violence. What can protests accomplish in the face of the increasing power, destructiveness and inhumanity of military technology? Social media affords the possibility to break through mainstream media narratives, but in its overwhelming, algorithmically driven clamour for our attention – another form of noise – do our online lives also make it difficult to maintain collective focus on issues of life and death? This discussion includes Palestinian artist and sound researcher Bint Mbareh, as well as Gabriel Saloman Mindel of Yellow Swans, whose work as a researcher focuses on the relationship between noise, protest and power. Contributing moderator is Polish theorist and sound artist Justyna Stasiowska.