Sound Unheard: Editorial and Contents

Abstract

The unheard often remains unnoticed. What we hear and what we do not, what we notice and what we do not is determined not only by our physiological aural capacities but by a complex intermingling of social, cultural, political and technological factors. The different contributions to this publication focus on artistic and literary works that concentrate on the unheard sonic spectrum of the past and present. The cultural, social or political phenomena questioned here are related to frequencies below or beyond the threshold of perception, to overlapping sound fields or to auditory distraction. The sounds they make use of or express have been obliterated, disguised, “drowned”. Listening to the unheard thus means to reveal or seek explanation for the silencing, concealment or disappearance of these sounds.