goodman_sonicwarfare

2400–1400 B.C.: Project Jericho 25
hits by the military for the purposes of irritation, manipulation, and torture,
underline the convoluted fabric of sonic warfare. Any simplistic opposition
between standard and nonstandard uses of sound, music, and technology becomes
confounded very quickly in relation to the complexities of the militaryentertainment
complex. 30 For sure, ideological motivations aside, the military
deployments, while aiming toward closing down situations as opposed to opening
them up, are often as speculative as those of the self- conscious tinkering
of artists. Yet the abuse of military technology by artists and musicians is one
thing. The abuse of music by the military is another. Alongside artists such
as Joe Banks and Mark Bain, who hack and redeploy the technologies of the
military- industrial complex into unforeseen uses, aesthetic experimentation
with perisonics, or dangerous sounds, becomes increasingly essential as patents
are locked down and uses legislated. It is therefore necessary to be clearer about
the overlaps of military and sonic culture and to begin to pick apart the active
forces from the reactive ones.