The Audible Past - Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction

"Jonathan Sterne's "The Audible Past "has come along to set the record straight on the cultural origins of sounds and systems, on machines and the mechanisms of culture. He's come here to give us the lowdown on how the technology evolved. Think of the book as a kind of sonic map of the origins of the way we listen to things around us, as a primer for the sonically perplexed."--Paul D. Miller a.k.a. Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid

List of contents

List of Figures ix

List of Abbreviations for Archival and Other Historical Materials Cited xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Hello! 1

1. Machines to Hear for Them 31

2. Techniques of Listening 87

3. Audible Technique and Media 137

4. Plastic Aurality: Technologies into Media 179

5. The Social Genesis of Sound Fidelity 215

6. A Resonant Tomb 287

Conclusion: Audible Futures 335

Notes 353

Bibliography 415

Index 437

About the author

Jonathan Sterne teaches in the Department of Communication and the Program for Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He writes about media, technology, and the politics of culture, and is codirector of the online magazine Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life.

Summary

Suitable for cultural studies, media and communication studies, the musicology, and the history of technology, this book explores the cultural origins of sound reproduction. It describes a distinctive sound culture that gave birth to the sound recording and transmission devices so ubiquitous in modern life.

Product details

• Authors: Sterne, Jonathan Sterne
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 13.03.2003
• EAN: 9780822330042
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-3004-2
• No. of pages: 472
• Dimensions: 162 mm x 247 mm x 38 mm
• Weight: 853 g
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > Electronics, electrical engineering, communications engineering; Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > Communication science; Kommunikationswissenschaft, Nachrichtententechnik, Telekommunikation