Women’s March Colloquy - Listening for Dissensus

作者：M. Sonevytsky · 发表于：Music and Politics · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.3998/MP.9460447.0013.102 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Psychology

This essay offers a “soundbite ethnography” of a few key moments from the Women’s March on Washington. Attending to moments of acoustic rupture, density, and disorientation, Sonevytsky applies Rancière’s concept of dissensus and Mouffe’s notion of agonistic democracy to assess potent moments of sonic micro-occupation as they occurred throughout the day. The essay concludes with a meditation on visceral knowledge and the potential of sonic ethnography in a time of societal upheaval. My aim in this brief essay is to approach the concept of dissensus as I heard it made manifest through acts of sonic micro-occupation, specifically examining one instance from the first Women’s March on Washington. To approach dissensus—a term originating in the 1960s as a portmanteau of dissent and consensus and conventionally defined as “widespread dissent”—I lean on the philosopher Jacques Rancière as well as political theorist Chantal Mouffe and her notion of “agonistic democracy.” In thinking through how we might listen for and apprehend dissensus, I want to puzzle through the moments of conflict and discomfort that defined discourse around the Women’s March and became sonically manifest at moments during the day. Before I conclude, I will also reflect on how my experience at the March (as well as the broader context of the 2016 election) has productively destabilized my relationship to my long-term research on popular music and discourses of sovereignty in Ukraine and forced me to re-evaluate...