Course Bio

Noise gets a bad rap. From the smallest inconvenience to the most bludgeoning sonic torture, it is easy to leap to noise’s deleterious effects. But what if there were more inspiring politics to noise? What if noise, rather than a disturbance, was a revolution? 

One such political potential of noise is its association with queerness. When we place noise and queerness in concert, each term reveals something about the other, their mutual slipperiness, recalcitrance to knowability, and refusal to be categorised bolstering each other in productive ways. This is no halcyon union, however, and there is a darker side to queer noise: noise and queerness can be dangerous positions to occupy, and we will encounter many instances over the course where pleasure and pain are put into startling relief. 

In this Topic, we will explore queer noise through four key areas: theoretical connections between noise and queerness; the relationship between queer noise and sex; the relationship between queer noise and violence; and finally considerations of queer noise and death, attending to the connections between queer theory, noise, silence, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Our studies will make a wide variety of noisy encounters: from the blinding industrial noise music of US artists such as Straight Panic; to the sexually explicit free improvisation of musicians like Michael Foster; to the atonal and Sadistic operas of Sylvano Bussotti; and to the silences embedded within queer culture through the decimation of communities through HIV and AIDS.

Throughout the course, however, we will also trace a path towards joy: towards the potential of a noisier, freer way of living.