5 The Ethics and Politics of Everyday Sounds

This chapter turns to solastalgia – a form of psychic or existential distress caused by changes in the home environment. Sonic solastalgia, in particular, is discussed in relation to the construction of a new highway or wind farm, the chopping down of trees, etc.

The author then discusses resonance communities, and our inability to be entirely separated from other sonic environments. This means that sound is a (co-)constituent of our social lives – it can unite or divide, include or exclude, homogenize or heterogenized. It is set out that in and through sound we can express how we live together and share our common daily experiences.

The way in which sounds are political is detailed – sounds influence modes of perception and are a means of (re)organizing private and public spaces. They also influence human agents on a cultural and pre-cultural (biological) level. Additionally, interactive sonic encounters are shown to relate to ethics.