Embodied Vibrations: Noise, Mood, & Subtractive Synthesis in High Intensity Acoustic Experiences

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that the acoustic phenomenon of Sympathetic Resonance and Subtractive Synthesis can be deployed to clarify the somaesthetics of mood and attention. Leaning on recent work on the notion of “atmosphere” and several classic conversations about the sharedness of moods from thinkers like Hubert Dreyfus and Sarah Ahmed, as well as on a reading of music theory and an analysis of experimental music performances, we argue that Subtractive Synthesis provides a model for understanding how lived presence and attention emerges as co-constituent with the noisiness of life. Put more bluntly, Subtractive Synthesis allows for the possibility of a “Sympathetic Resonance,” where a given person, properly calibrated through the unfolding of their embodied life “vibrate” alongside or in the midst of the possibilities of a given moment. This understanding of embodied attention clarifies the necessity of pluralism in lived engagements and suggests that political attempts to homogenize experience are not only doomed to fail but based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the sharedness of our attentional realities.