SOUND RESEARCH LOG: Armadas of Hydrophones
On the sonic aspects of naval intelligence: “Basically, any instrument that can digitally eavesdrop on the military’s stuff is of concern, including seismometers, which measure vibrations so low most...
View ArticleListening to le Carré
Surveillance is both a phylum and an order of sound. It is both a context within which sound occurs, and a subset of the way sound functions. We listen intently, and we overhear; we overhear on...
View ArticleJasmine Guffond Gets the Drop on the Mic
Microphone Permission by Jasmine Guffond Both the album title, Microphone Permission, and the title of its lead track, “Forever Listening,” get at Jasmine Guffond’s interest in surveillance culture....
View ArticleSound Ledger¹ (Privacy, Insulation, Birds)
1262: The specific California Assembly bill (AB-1262) addressing privacy in regard to voice recognition 6.2: The value, in billions of U.S. dollars, estimated for the global building acoustic...
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The Waveforms of War
The horizontal waveform has become a ubiquitous visual signifier of audio. It was popularized in particular by SoundCloud, but existed long before that in various digital audio tools, and can be...
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Polaroids from the Singularity: The Concept of “Hidden”
I’m fascinated when DALL·E 2 (labs.openai.com) falls short — why, for example, the concept of “hidden” seems unfamiliar to it. The prompt: “photograph of a tape cassette with a microphone hidden inside”
View ArticleSound Ledger¹: noise, ASMR, privacy
42: Percent of rickshaw drivers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, reporting hearing loss 15: Percent rise in brand awareness after a hair salon franchise employed ASMR to promote itself 300,000: Settlement paid...
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This Week in Sound: The Science of Calling a Cat
These sound-studies highlights of the week originally appeared in the May 9, 2023, issue of the Disquiet.com weekly email newsletter, This Week in Sound. JUST KIDDING: There is a Kickstarter (I have...
View Article“Voicemail – 124”
I receive a lot of voicemail messages from people I don’t know even though I’ve had this phone number for over 20 years. Today I got several in quick succession that had especially interesting sonic...
View ArticleThis Week in Sound: Pythagoras’ Flaw, Whale Chatter, AWOL Fog Horn
These sound-studies highlights of the week originally appeared in the March 5, 2024, issue of the Disquiet.com weekly email newsletter, This Week in Sound. This Week in Sound is the best way I’ve...
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