Complicating the Intermundane: Sound, Musical Performance, and Listening Experience

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Poster Session: Philosophy, Theory and Critique Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Mass production of modernity is featured with a unique penetration of the dead. This urges us to constantly think about the functionality and positionality of deadness of sound dynamically and contextually. Starting from a revisit of classic Marxist labor theory, I examined the particularity of sound in the live musical performances in the 1970s by analyzing two videos. I examined how sound is represented, appropriated, and interpreted by studying the connection between the physical gestures and sonic results of the performers. I hope to further push the boundaries of sonic intermundane by putting it into a conversation with postmodernity. I argue that sound is a legitimate intersectional point to articulate the interrelationship between the intermundane, (televised) musical performances, and labor theory.

Author

• Runchao Liu, University of Minnesota