Toby Heys is the Head of the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University. He works with the AUDINT research unit which had its anthology Unsound: Undead (2019). His monograph Sound Pressure: How Sound Systems Influence, Manipulate and Torture was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2019.
The Martial Arts of Sonic Hauntology (June 17–July 23, 2011)
Organized by: AUDiNT (Toby Heys, Jon Cohrs, & Steve Goodman)
Presenters: Toby Heys (AUDiNT), Jon Cohrs (AUDiNT), Steve Goodman (AUDiNT), Dave Tompkins, Andy Battaglia.
This panel explored the intersection of sonic culture and the military-entertainment complex through the disembodied voices of secret communication devices, battlefield sonic deception and propaganda, acoustic weaponry, the physiology of inaudible vibration (unsound systems) and the encrypted, viral transmission channels of both analog and digital culture.
This event was co-presented with Art in General in relation to AUDiNT’s New Commission exhibition at Art in General, The Dead Record Office (June 17–July 23, 2011).
Moderator:
Andy Battaglia is deputy editor at ARTnews magazine in New York. From 2010 to 2016, he worked full-time as a freelance writer and editor, with work in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Frieze, The National, The Paris Review, Rolling Stone, NPR, New York/Vulture, Bandcamp, The New Yorker, The Wire, Flash Art, Spin, Artforum, Bookforum, Resident Advisor, Slate, eMusic, Washington Post, Salon, McSweeney’s, and Pitchfork. From 2001 to 2010, he was an editor and staff writer for The Onion A.V. Club, for which he wrote features and reviews and edited a city section devoted to New York. He also worked on three anthology books, including Inventory: …Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists, The Pitchfork 500, and Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations with Entertainment’s Most Enduring Outsiders. Since 2010, he has also worked as an organizer and curator for Unsound, a project devoted to music and sound-art that presents concerts, discussions, and presentations in New York as well as Krakow, Poland and points beyond.
Panelists:
Dave Tompkins is a writer from North Carolina living in Brooklyn. His first book How To Wreck a Nice Beach is about the history of the Vocoder. In the past he’s contributed to the New Yorker, The Wire, Slate, Ego Trip and New York Magazine. Recently he’s written about hip-hop in Charleston and George Clinton for the Oxford American, and contributed an essay on the Jungle Brothers and water dowsing for the forthcoming anthology Boogie Down Predictions (Strange Attractor/MIT). He’s currently working on a book about Miami Bass.
(howtowreckanicebeach.com)
Steve Goodman/Kode9 runs the record label Hyperdub and produces electronic music as Kode9. He is a senior lecturer in Sonic Culture at the University of East London, and runs the MA Programme in Sonic Culture. His book Sonic Warfare (MIT Press, 2010) is a theoretical investigation of sound, affect and power. Additionally, he was a member of the autonomous research collective, the Ccru (Cybernetic culture research unit).
(audint.net / hyperdub.net / sonicwarfare.wordpress.com / kode9.com)
Toby Heys produces music, sound / video installations and web projects as a member of Battery Operated and robotic / electronic media projects as a member of The KIT Collaboration. He runs the sound / video label Cocosolidciti out of the UK. Recently he finished a year-long ‘visiting scholar’ post in the Music department of New York University and is currently an AHRC scholar finishing a PhD at John Moores University in England as well as a resident artist at Eyebeam in New York.(audint.net / kitcollaboration.net / batteryoperated.net / cocosolidciti.com)
Jon Cohrs is a recording engineer who runs Spleenless Mastering and visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Recently, he created OMG I’m on .TV; an analog Pirate TV station during the digital transition that was used as a reference in a Supreme Court amicus brief on creativity and copyright. Currently, he is a fellow at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center and teaches at Parsons, The New School for Design.
(audint.net / anewfuckingwilderness.com)
AUDiNT, short for “Audio Intelligence” is a collaborative, research team comprised of artists and scholars Steve Goodman, Toby Heys (Eyebeam Resident) and Jon Cohrs (Eyebeam Fellow). The Dead Record Officeexplores the historical and fictious relationship between sound and warfare. http://AUDiNT.net/