Psofotopias. Noise: Sounding Out the Unheard (Auditorium, 2025)

Psofotopia combines the Ancient Greek words for “loud sound or noise” (psófos) and “place” (tópos). Psofotopias are zones of uncertainty and ambiguity, spaces of noise and confusion positioned between the utopian and the dystopian, beyond positive or negative judgment. The identification of psofotopias is a step towards theorizing the unheard—i.e., the non-sonic conditions and constraints that determine the ways we perceive and attend to the sonic. Noise is the main agent and metaphor employed in this endeavor: the perceived ambiguity of noise in any given instance is influenced by unheard factors such as its context and the positionalities of those attending to it. This book explores sound beyond aurality and audibility, making the case that sound is more than just what is registered in listening.



Table of Contents:

A Long Preface

Introduction: Sound—Noise—Unheard

Chapter 1: We’re All Ears?

Chapter 2: Cyborgscapes

Chapter 3: Retroactive Scrobble

Chapter 4: Nemocentric Listening

Chapter 5: Psofotopias

Chapter 6: Paranoid Listening

Chapter 7: Against Deep Listening

Chapter 8: Practicing the Unheard

Chapter 9: Amsterdam’s Psofotopias

The book can be purchased at this link: https://www.haze-auditoriumedizioni.it/9788886784627-psofotopias/