The sound map as technopolitics for aural transculturation

Abstract

I present a notion of sound map through a theoretical framework that shifts the understanding of the cartographic practice from the scope of representation to that of the pragmatic operation. Subtracted from the pretensions of representation, the practice of sound mapping can conceived as an elaboration of technopolitical tools for acting in local contexts. Such action may facilitate aural transculturation processes. By aural transculturation I refer to a process of structural variation of meaning and value systems, experienced reciprocally by two listening cultures put in contact. The focus of the paper is, therefore, the sound map as an artifice capable of transforming listening patterns and behaviors. The discussion involves the concept of subject understood as the effect of dwelling practices, as well as the effect of the performance of media tools. In this context, I present a critique of two major regimes of production and sharing of information on the Internet through the use of digital technologies, thought here as the selfie and hater regimes. Such regimes are discussed on the basis of ethological characterizations of subjectivity, made in the light of the schizoanalytic concept of refrain and the eco-epistemological concept of ecognosis. Therefore, the category of sound map is presented as a technopolitical tool for critical intervention in the physiology of hegemonic regimes of aurality, in order to facilitate particular cases of deterritorialization of listening practices. The thesis is that such deterritorialization is a necessary condition for an improvement of the sense of public space and the care of common spaces.