Sonic Intimacy

Dominic Pettman is Professor of Culture and Media at Eugene Lang College and The New School for Social Research. His most recent book is Infinite Distraction: Paying Attention to Social Media (2016).

• Introduction: The Aural Phase1. The Cybernetic Voice2. The Gendered Voice3. The Creaturely Voice4. The Ecological Voice (Vox Mundi)Conclusion: In Salutation of All the Voices

"With Sonic Intimacy, we are manifestly in the hands of a skilled and not a little playful writer who connects new media to long developed philosophical conversations. This is a book that catalyzes thinking as much as it documents thoughts, and its influence should be wide and varied."—David Cecchetto, York University "Sonic Intimacy is a perceptive, engaging, and clever set of meditations on a topic of increasing scholarly importance: how sound produces human, technical, and nonhuman intimacies. Pettman's treatment of sound across the human and nonhuman is innovative, refreshing, and quite needed at this time."—Richard Grusin, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee "The form and style of Pettman's book capture the character of this roving ear, always pricking up with the possibility of another intriguing example. Pettman is a very engaging writer, and the way he traverses contexts and theoretical horizons is thrilling...Pettman's writing is perhaps at its most exciting when it ignores expectations to pin down the voices of interlocutors and instead revels in throwing the voice, in making it seem as if it emanates from somewhere else. Pettman himself, whose body of writing gives the impression of an insatiable curiosity, is no doubt already chasing down other voices and other worlds. I urge readers, though, to let their ear linger a little longer over this intriguing little book that promises to help us discern voices where we least expect to hear them."—Naomi Waltham-Smith, Boundary 2