Lauri Siisiäinen, Ph.D
Researcher
Political Science / Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä
Postal address
P.O. Box 35 (MaB)
FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä
Fax +358 14 260 3635
E-mail: lauri.m.siisiainen@jyu.fi
Research interests
The Theory of Sonorous Politics (Abstract)
Contemporary social and political theory commonly includes references to “audio visual” media (“media-power”, “media-politics”, “media-society” etc.). However, it seems that one of the key terms, i.e. audio and its political significance has often remained somewhat vague. This “vagueness” is manifested primarily in the presumption that auditory or sonorous politics – and the politics of music, whether popular or classical, – can be unproblematically translated into models of either rhetorical argumentation or visual representation (visual media). In this case, the unquestioned a priori assumption is that there is no difference, at least not in terms of political thought, between audio and visual
On the other hand, when the political meaning of audio has been included in discussions on contemporary political theory, it has often been based on the equally unquestioned assumption of an essential distinction between audio and visual. Audio has been theoretically defined by a list of (allegedly) inherent properties, the most central of which being temporality, dynamism, immersion, openness, immediacy, multiplicity, singularity and contingency. Consequently, auditory/sonorous politics has been characterised in equally fundamental terms as the inherent realm of non-technical, non-discriminatory, “de-territorialised” and participatory relations. Auditory perception and experience have been defined (or tacitly understood) as the mysterious, privileged “faculty” or origin which generates political relations between “singulars”. Most importantly, it has been a priori assumed that the auditory realm somehow always remains safe from domination and control, as well as the related techniques and technologies (the “ocular centric” realm).
Firstly, the study focuses on the most central variations of this discourse – the political ontology of “audio-visual” dualism – in contemporary political theory. The aim is to illustrate how the dualism in question actually serves as the framework of thought adopted more or less explicitly by a number of intellectuals representing divergent traditions of thought (ranging from phenomenology to Marxist theory and post-structuralism) and defending divergent and often contradictory views. The “applications” (and problems) of the ontological framework range from analyses of power and resistance to media studies and contemporary studies in popular culture, irrespective of their often being in contradiction with the explicit theoretical “projects” of the intellectuals in question.
Secondly, the aim is to illustrate the problematic character of the dichotomy both in terms of the “immanent” problems in its theoretical argumentation and the problems related to its historical-political analysis and interpretation. Thirdly, the study presents the framework for the introduction of an alternative political theory, one that does not take the meaning of audio (in terms of its distinction from visual) as a self-evident and inherent (pre-political) starting point, but rather as a political issue that is open to conflicts, seizures and irruptions.