Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Audio Atmospherics: Listening from Land

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sound, Space and Society

Part of the book series: Geographies of Media ((GOM))

  • 384 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter moves from the sea to the shore and to the millions of listeners on land, investigating how they consumed rebel radio broadcasts. Arguing that listening is a practice that shapes and is shaped by relations between bodies and an expanded field of non-human materials, and more-than-human life, the chapter considers how the intimate soundscapes described in Chap. 3 were received, generating atmospheric spaces of listening. These atmospheric listening spaces, it is argued, were affective as listeners became immersed within the politics surrounding the pirate broadcasting phenomenon, namely the ongoing fight for free radio. The chapter demonstrates how a contemporary concern with affective atmospheres can be rethought through the example of rebel radio stations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For sound to travel, it must do so via a medium through which it propagates (such as air, water, solids). Radio does not technically require a medium to travel as it relies on electromagnetic waves that themselves have energy. As such, where it is noted that radio relies on air/atmosphere this refers to radio reception. What is heard via radio is sound that has propagated through the air when received by the listener. It also refers to the movement of radio waves—which, irrespective of propagation, still cross invisible aerial territories (see also Chap. 5).

References

  • Adey, P., Brayer, L., Masson, D., Murphy, P., Simpson, P., & Tixier, N. (2013). ‘Pour votre tranquillité’: Ambiance, atmosphere, and surveillance. Geoforum, 49, 299–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (2006). Becoming and being hopeful: Towards a theory of affect. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24, 733–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (2009). Affective atmospheres. Emotion, Space and Society, 2, 77–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B., & Ash, J. (2015). Atmospheric methods. In P. Vannini (Ed.), Non-Representational Methodologies: Re-Envisioning Research (pp. 34–51). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ash, J. (2013). Rethinking affective atmospheres: Technology, perturbation and space times of the non-human. Geoforum, 49, 20–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, K., Cochrane, A., Mohan, G., & Neal, S. (2015). Listening. Emotion, Space and Society, 17, 7–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boland, P. (2010). Sonic geography, place and race in the formation of local identity: Liverpool and Scousers. Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography, 92(1), 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, A. J. (2016). Above and below the streets: A musical geography of anti-nuclear protest in Tokyo. Emotion, Space and Society, 20, 82–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, K. (1990). Ionosphric Radio. London: Peter Peregrinus Ltd.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Doughty, K., Duffy, M., & Harada, T. (2016). Practices of emotional and affective geographies of sound. Emotion, Space and Society, 20, 39–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edensor, T. (2012). Illuminated atmospheres: Anticipating and reproducing the flow of affective experience in Blackpool. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 30(6), 1103–1122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edensor, T. (2015a). Producing atmospheres at the match: Fan cultures, commercialisation and mood management in English football. Emotion, Space and Society, 15, 82–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edensor, T. (2015b). Light design and atmosphere. Visual Communication, 14(3), 331–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edmond, M. (2015). All platforms considered: Contemporary radio and transmedia engagement. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1566–1582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, M. (2016). Sound as affect: Difference, power and spatiality. Emotion, Space and Society, 20, 42–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, M., Kanngieser, A., & Prior, J. (2016). Listening geographies: Landscape, affect and geotechnologies. Progress in Human Geography, 1–20, Retrieved May 13, 2017, from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309132516652952

  • Hendy, D. (2010). Listening in the dark: Night-time radio and a ‘deep history’of media. Media History, 16(2), 215–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold, T. (2007). Against soundscape. In A. Carlyle (Ed.), Autumn Leaves: Sounds and the Environment in Artistic Practice (pp. 10–13). Paris: Double Entendre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keough, S. B. (2010). The importance of place in community radio broadcasting: A case study of WDVX, Knowxville, Tennessee. The Journal of Cultural Geography, 21(1), 77–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kogawa, T., & Kanngieser, A. (2013). A Micro-history of ‘Convivial’ radio in Japan. A conversation with Tetsuo Kogawa with an introduction by Anja Kanngieser. Parallax, 19(2), 85–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levi-Strauss, C. (1973). Tristes Tropiques. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, P. M. (2000). Private passion, public neglect: The cultural status of radio. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 3(2), 160–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mack, J. (2011). The Sea: A Cultural History. London: Reaktion.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormack, D. P. (2008). Engineering affective atmospheres: On the moving geographies of the 1897 Andree expedition. Cultural Geographies, 15, 413–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nancy, J. L. (2007). Listening. New York: Fordham University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogola, G. (2011). The political economy of the media in Kenya: From Kenyatta’s nation-building press to Kibaki’s local-language FM radio. Africa Today, 57(3), 77–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Past Masters No 4. (2007). ‘Radio Sunk’ Radio Caroline loses aerial, October–November 1987. London: [CD] The Radio Caroline Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Past Masters No 6. (2007). ‘Caroline—For the moment….Goodbye’ Radio Caroline Ship sinks, March 19th 1980. London: [CD] The Radio Caroline Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, K. (2014). Tracking (im) mobilities at sea: Ships, boats and surveillance strategies. Mobilities, 9(3), 414–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pink, S., & Leder Mackley, K. (2016). Moving, making and atmosphere: Routines of home as sites for mundane improvisation. Mobilities, 11(2), 171–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinkerton, A., & Dodds, K. (2009). Radio geopolitics: Broadcasting, listening and the struggle for acoustic spaces. Progress in Human Geography, 33(1), 10–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pompeii, B. (2015). The use of public radio as a tool in qualitative geographic research. GeoJournal, 80(6), 791–802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Revill, G. (2016). How is space made in sound? Spatial mediation, critical phenomenology and the political agency of sound. Progress in Human Geography, 40(2), 240–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, P. (2009). ‘Failing on deaf ears’: A postphenomenology of sonorous presence. Environment and Planning A, 41(11), 2556–2575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skues, K. (2010). Pop Went the Pirates II. Norfolk: Lambs’ Meadow Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinberg, P. E. (2001). The Social Construction of the Ocean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, K. (2011). Atmospheric attunements. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 29(3), 445–453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, N. (2004). Intensities of feeling: Towards a politics of affect. Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography, 86(1), 57–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J., & Peters, K. (2015). Unlocking carceral atmospheres: Designing visual/material encounters at the prison museum. Visual Communication, 14(3), 309–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wissmann, T., & Zimmermann, S. (2015). Sound in media: Audio drama and audio-guided tours as stimuli for the creation of place. GeoJournal, 80(6), 803–810.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Kimberley Peters

Authors
  1. Kimberley Peters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Peters, K. (2018). Audio Atmospherics: Listening from Land. In: Sound, Space and Society. Geographies of Media. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57676-7_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57676-7_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-57675-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-57676-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation