music/sound/noise

In this essay, John Barber argues that sound suggests a new and valuable way of approaching and considering Arabic electronic literature. Based on the oral histories of Arab cultures, the use of sound in Arabic electronic literature provides a way of knowing and being in a literary world, real or imagined. Sound makes readers re-think their relational experiences with others, with themselves, and the spaces and places they inhabit. These shifting relationships promote interesting opportunities for Arabic electronic literature.

Reviewer Tim Keane suggests that Pete Townshend’s memoir Who I Am captures the tension animating The Who’s career, the duality of autobiographical blues and (art-school inspired) auto-destruction. But, Keane suggests, the book also articulates the written autobiography’s inevitable (if sometimes interesting) failure to achieve the “ex-static” atemporality of music. “I Can’t Explain" ends up telling us more about Townshend’s soul than Who I Am.

As I thread my way through ebr, I touch base with the artificial intelligentsia that my work circulates in. The artificial intelligentsia is an internetworked intelligence that consists of all the linked data being distributed in cyberspace at any given time, one that is powered by artistic- intellectual agents remixing the flow of contemporary thought.

Trace Reddell introduces Sonic Contents.

Erik Davis listens to Lee Perry's work.

tobias c. van Veen reviews Paul D. Miller a.k.a. Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid's MIT publication, Rhythm Science.

David Rothenberg writes of the affective and effective power of reverb.

Erik Davis discusses the relationship between electronic sound and environment.

James Riley on Jack Kerouac.

Marcus Boon explores the healing of traditional music.