Post Publication Cleanup: Old School Word Clouds


I’m in the somewhat laborious process of decommissioning files from two books. I hate sorting through paper. I’m organized inside computers, not outside them. There are tons of things that were important at the time and can now be recycled, including these two pages (which as you can see from the scan-through are already recycled drafts of “What If Interactivity Is the New Passivity?”). I won’t bother you with scans of the manuscript in its various different stages, but the materiality of print is hard to ignore when surveying the masses of paper that were produced before the final book was put into print. Reduced to an incunabulum, my copy of the advance version of the book (ie, bound, uncorrected proofs for reviewers) has been retired to the Museum of Quirky Communication Technologies With a Special Emphasis on the Obsolete, at least until I think of a better home for it. The Sound Studies Reader, though longer, produced less paper in my home and office. If you include the piles of paper produced by all the authors in the preparation and original publication of their essays, it would yield an awesome mountain.

New Text: about 900 pages of it

(also available on wax cylinder, via 128kbps mp3):

I returned home from Europe to find both my new books waiting for me. Although Amazon lists North American release dates in early August (and MP3 comes out on my birthday), the books are starting to reach people.

MP3 is a gorgeous book and I have to thank Amy Ruth Buchanan, my designer, and Liz Springate, my graphic artist (I hired her: I don’t know of any academic presses that provide graphic artists for their authors). Even the hardcover with its orange and black colour combo has a certain special quality.

As I wrote to the authors in The Sound Studies Reader, assembling the reader was a labour of love, but also considerably more difficult than I initially imagined, because of the sheer volume of great work on sound that’s now in print (and the ongoing flow of great work that’s appeared since the ToC was set). In the end, I decided to include more work with the sacrifice that it required some editing and excerpting. Some of my favourite authors and texts — new and old — aren’t even in the book.

I’m grateful to everyone who helped me along in the rather lengthy process of producing both book. The acknowledgements at the beginning of MP3 are a pamphlet in themselves, and you can read them online courtesy of Scribd.

I’ll have more to say about both books in the coming weeks, but it was time to announce since others are starting to get them.

If you want to order either, here are some options:

MP3: The Meaning of a Format at Duke University Press
The Sound Studies Reader at Routledge.

Both companies also have examination copy policies if you’re thinking of course adoption.

Amazon in your country may have a discount (the US does, Canada does not), or you could support your local awesome academic bookstore, if you still have one. For instance, in Pro QM Berlin has a better English-language academic bookstore than any in Montreal. And I’m not just saying that because they have a “sound studies/noise” shelf.

—

In addition to cloth, paper, and wax cylinder via mp3, MP3 will be out on iBooks and Kindle sometime in the next few weeks, and I will also be launching an online companion (done in Scalar) later in the summer.

There will be a book launch in Montreal in September.

…and oops, we’re in the summer hiatus

and I’m in Europe for 4 weeks. We just got to Paris, which is lovely (I’d never been). We’re near the Bastille for two days before moving into an apartment. In England, I had a wonderful time at the Supersonix conference, and the highlight was recording a bit of the intro to MP3 onto a ca. 1900 phonograph cylinder as part of Aleks Kolkowski’s Phonographies project.

But things have already been quite slow in this space, and probably will continue to be, apart from occasional announcements, until fall. Though every time I say that, something comes up.

Protest Pictures

Finally, I got a good shot of my favourite sign. In the background, you can see that St-Denis, normally a very busy thoroughfare, has been cleared. Also, some great costumes from tonight’s protest, AND a May 1st flashback for the Tax Dodgers at the NYC May Day demonstration. They also sang, but I didn’t record.

Two New Texts avec Backstory + New Rhythm for Villeray

Two new texts on the casseroles appear today:

1. Quebec’s #casseroles: on participation, percussion and protest. This was the piece that got me started writing about all this stuff — as in, “I have to write something and this has such an obvious sonic angle.” I emailed Jennifer Stoever-Ackerman, as I’d admired the Sound Studies Blog from a distance for some time (and if you’re interested in sound studies, I strongly recommend following it and/or contributing). It struck me as the perfect venue because of its combination of topic and temporality, and also because they already have a thread on sound and protest–see here and here. Jenny expressed interest, and I got to work. I read everything I could on rough music and charivari. I emailed a bunch of friends for background. I consulted with my friend Nick Dew, who does early modern French history. He put me in touch with Natalie Zemon-Davis, who I originally intended just to interview for the piece. But in talking we realized that we could do an op-ed. So that’s how that happened. This is the longer consideration I’d originally intended to produce, made better by Jenny’s editing and the beautiful layout. She also deserves a ton of credit for going out and finding someone to translate the piece so it would appear in English and French at the same time. Really forward-thinking and cool. I’ll be participating again in the Sound Studies Blog as a commenter shortly, and I hope to find other ways to be involved going forward.

2. Bodies-Streets. You should read the whole issue: Out of the Mouths of ‘Casseroles’: textes qui bougent au rhythme du carré rouge. Last week, Kim Sawchuk, Owen Chapman and Jeremy Stolow emailed a bunch of people to put together a “lightning quick” publication on the strike and protests. I’d have to say for academic productions, this is probably the fastest I’ve even been involved with apart from blogging, and the result is also beautiful.

There’s always more to say about the protests, but I think now it’s time for me to be quiet on the subject and move on to some other writing (colour television history, the intersection of cultural studies, media studies and technology studies, and the mobility of music are on deck before I get to Europe later this month–oh yes, and syllabi).

In this space I’ll continue shorter comments on Quebec happenings, and maybe some stuff on music and/or MUTEK as well.

Last night’s protest was a little smaller, but we were still big enough to take the intersection. Exhausted from other stuff, I didn’t join the march, but the rhythm in this video was what we were playing. It was great to come out and be part of a new groove.

Amateur and Professional Music Night

Last night we attended our neighbourhood casseroles protest at 8, but had to get down to Metropolis for the MUTEK show by 10. So we only marched a few blocks. 75% of the satisfaction but 25% of the exercise. We’ll miss the protests tonight and tomorrow but I gather they will be happening for a long time with Charest walking out of talks with the students after offering them a $1 reduction over the original proposed fees. That’s right. The government dropped their offer $1.

The protest was in great form as usual (see below). As to the show, I realized that most of the laptop performances are things I see at conferences without Carrie. So it was interesting for us both to go and talk about live electronic music, especially after les breastfeeders put on one of the best lives rock shows I’ve seen in a long time Monday night. More on that when we’re done going to shows for the festival. Last night was Shackleton, Monolake (who has a thing or two to say about live performance with electronics and who stole the show) and Jeff Mills. I am delighted to hear some of my favourite electronic acts live, and also to discover some new ones (Robin Fox laser show? HIGHLY recommended.)

Short version:

Long version:

Also, my favourite sign so far–I haven’t seen a good picture of it yet:

Villeray Désobéit