Productive Parasites: Thinking of Noise as Affect

Marie Thompson

doi:10.5130/csr.v18i3.2860

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Published: Nov 11, 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v18i3.2860

Keywords:

Affect, Michel Serres, parasite, sound, music

Marie Thompson

Newcastle University

Abstract

Drawing from Michel Serres’ notion of the parasite, this article provides a nuanced explanation for noise that distinguishes itself from prevailing negative narratives, which often seek to define noise as unwanted, undesirable or damaging sound. Such narratives have left noise vulnerable to moralising polemics, which construct silence and noise as a dichotomy between the past and present, natural and cultural, relaxing and disturbing, and, fundamentally, good and bad. This article facilitates a reconsideration of noise’s ethical connotations by proposing the notion of noise as affect.

Issue

Vol 18 No 3 (2012): On Noise

Section

On Noise (Peer Reviewed)

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Author Biography

Marie Thompson, Newcastle University

Marie Thompson is a PhD candidate at Newcastle University, UK, based in the International Centre for Music Studies. Her research considers the ethical and aesthetic implications of thinking about noise in relation to affect. She is also co-editor of the forthcoming collection Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience.

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Marie Thompson, Newcastle University