Whose Crisis Is It?: Embodied Resistance and Sonic Warfare

Abstract

At rights-based protests, music and sound can communicate feelings of crisis. As different feelings about crisis come together at demonstrations, their meaning is translated into reduced sonic expressions. Simultaneous speeches, chants, songs, and sounds create a sonic tapestry that resembles the sound of battlefields. What begs the question is how sonifications of crisis affect protest modes. Drawing on fieldwork from a standoff between right- and left-wing groups in the city of Dresden in 2020, this article discusses strategic creations and uses of sound to direct the demonstration’s sensory intensity. Using affect theory, the article highlights that differently felt anger, despair, fear, and exhaustion can mobilize people to form or join provisional sound collectives. This article shows that sonifications of crisis are perceived as vessels to get specific political messages across. Further, the article demonstrates that the discourses surrounding sounded political battlefields can stimulate new modes of protest that reach beyond the street.