In Hush, Mack Hagood draws evidence from noise-canceling headphones, tinnitus maskers, LPs that play ocean sounds, nature-sound mobile apps, and in-ear smart technologies to argue the true purpose of media is not information transmission, but rather the control of how we engage our environment. These devices, which Hagood calls orphic media, give users the freedom to remain unaffected in the changeable and distracting spaces of contemporary captialism and reveal how racial, gendered, ableist, and class ideologies shape or desire to block unwanted sounds. Challenging our self-defeating attempts to be free of one another, he rethinks edia theory, sound studies, and the very definition of media.

As a group, let us make new inquiries about sound and the senses while drawing attention to histories and stories about underrepresented communities from a wide range of historical periods across culture as well as to forms, ideas, and practices that are centered on sound originated from non-Western contexts.

Please RSVP to this event at Humanities.Events@Dartmouth.edu.

A limited number of book copies will be available for participants.

Organizers: Yiren Zheng, Allie Martin, Andrew Simon.