Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life by Brandon LaBelle

Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life Reviews

• 
  John

  More a series of essays about different aspects of sound (and many other unrelated phenomena) and cities than a book with a coherent thesis that reaches a definitive conclusion. Some interesting ideas, but many of those ideas are vaguely spelled out and protected by a layer of self-consciously academic language. I was disappointed at the way the book just stops almost in mid-thought, during a chapter on signal transmission that makes its way through pirate radio and somehow acts as if this is still relevant in contemporary cities. What about the transition from radio and television signal transmission to cable tv, the internet and mobile phones as signal-receiving signifiers? Without a conclusion to synthesize the ideas of each of the books disparate sections, there is little to take away from it in terms of how sound is integral to the urban experience as a whole. Why do city dwellers need to be attentive to their sonic environments? How are sculpted sonic spaces used by everyday citizens? Ultimately the answer to these and many more questions are more alluded to than presented.
• 
  Stefanie Lubkowski

  This book was thought-provoking, but wasn't quite what I expected. It's more of a phenomenological/experiential analysis of urban environments in which sound plays a defining role, but the book is not exclusively focused on sound. There were things I definitely didn't agree with the author about, and a few instances where he seemed to know less about the physics of sound than the author of such a study should. But, it definitely stimulated my own thoughts about the sonic environment and its influence on identity, behavior, etc in a very productive way.
• 
  Laçin

  This book keeps opening up. Each chapter brings richness to territorial dimensions. I like that. I understand that the author did not try to reach closure about any of the components of sonority; rather, demonstrate how sound works through illustrative thinking: by fragmenting, in fragments, on fragments.
• 
  Lee Barry

  A good book to add to the reading list for the Chicago Architecture Biennial for its architectural metaphorizations of sound.  The writing is a bit scholarly (and sometimes vague), so it's probably not a book for "everyday reading", and more for deeper thinking.
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  Eugenie Santiago

  I found myself struggling to finish this book. It read like a PhD thesis written by a robot. Agonisingly souless. As for the content, I didn't find as much about sound as I had expected by the title. I was attracted to the book because I'm currently doing research on soundscapes. There was not much in here for me. It starts quite well, but by the last chapter there's hardly anything on the subject of sound.
• 
  Ietrio

  This is a weird series of essays. Myself I could not get it.