Social Science Research Council

"Difficult Music: Discursive Economies of Knowledge, Listening and Performance within Tokyo's Experimental Music Community"

Using sound as a focal point, my dissertation project will investigate the problem of the avant-garde and modernity in Japan. Within the contemporary soundscapes of Tokyo, my project will examine representative forms of what is often broadly referred to as sound art, and will focus in particular on such genres as onkyo and noise (noizu). These genres will serve as inroads through which to examine the problem of the avant-garde in Japan. Thus, tracing the historical lineage of Japanese noise and onkyo, among other forms, will necessarily open up larger questions pertaining to sound and modernity in Japan as well as the history of the avant-garde. Specifically, what does an examination of the experience of modernity in Japan via the domain of sound suggest that one focused on visuality might overlook or deny? My project will examine the historical conditions under which the avant-garde movement in Japan came to be recognized as such, and what the avant-garde might mean in contemporary Japan. The second part of my project will involve a broader historical and discursive analysis of sound, noise and shifting ways of hearing/listening in modernity. For example, how have discourses regarding sound and noise fluctuated with the emergence of new technologies, such as the radio, phonograph, and warplanes, and how were these technologies utilized by the avant-garde? Ultimately, I hope to reveal a previously unexplored dimension of the project of modernity in Japan by drawing connections between seemingly disparate realms: the avant-garde, sound and noise, and the shocks and sensations of everyday life and modernity.