Project description
Sonic street technologies: culture, diaspora and knowledge
Sonic street technologies (SST) emerge in marginal environments in the cities and societies of the Global South, becoming an essential part of popular culture. Jamaican reggae sound systems, Brazilian mobile carnival trio elétrico, Mexican sonideros and Colombian los picos are among the representatives of these rising 'street' technologies. The EU-funded SST project is exploring the sophisticated practices and techniques used by SST and the social and cultural motivations in their communities of origin. The project will map the 'technological diaspora' of SST and use a cultural studies methodology to compare different local SST, study their social and economic conditions and detect possible Jamaican or African influences. The project addresses the relationships between culture and technology, how this generates new knowledge and the extent to which SST low-tech innovations can produce alternatives for individual and community well-being and self-determination.
Objective
This project claims that ‘sonic street technologies’ (SST) provide a new, productive and urgently required understanding of the social, cultural and political nature of technology. Jamaican reggae sound systems, Brazilian mobile carnival trio electrico, Mexican sonideros and Colombian los picos are examples of such ‘street’ technologies. In the global south they are played out of doors and are an essential part of popular culture. These are re-purposed, hacked, DIYed, pirated, customized and creolized assemblages that generate intensive auditory experience for their audience by playing recorded music.
This project investigates the sophisticated practices and techniques by which SST are designed, produced and operated, as well as their social and cultural purposes in the communities in which they originate. SST are subaltern achievements operating in the ghettos and favelas at the margins of the cities and societies whose mass-produced machinery they often cannibalise.
This project maps what is describes as the ‘technological diaspora’ of the SST themselves. A cultural studies approach compares different local SST, their social and economic circumstances, and the presence or absence of Jamaican or African influence. A practice-as-research methodology gives local SST practitioners a share in the research process with workshops, conferences and an online resource. This helps to establish the alternatives to conventional ideas of design and production processes, as well as scientific knowledge itself.
By de-colonizing technology, the project addresses the pressing need to understand how technology actually works in practice. This is ever more urgent with the ‘existential’ threat of AI and killer robots, together with technology’s imbrication in climate catastrophe and digital social media’s erosion of democratic processes and privacy. Instead SST low-tech innovations generate solutions for individual and community well-being and self-determination.
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Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
SE14 6NW London
United Kingdom