Noise Pollution and the Eco-politics of Sound: Toxicity, Nature and Culture in the Contemporary Soundscape

Sound is a political question of which the antagonisms of noise pollution are a concrete embodiment. The discourses of noise pollution tend to postulate noise as a toxin that is produced by our industrial societies and is difficult either to contain or even define precisely. Composer R. Murray Schafer contrasts this toxin with a sustaining nature, but ecological thought of the past decade suggests that nature is, in fact, unnatural. The field recordings of Chris Watson and Francisco López suggest that this natural perversity can indicate a new mode of sonic ecological sustainability.