Abstract

On the plateau 1837: Of the Refrain, Deleuze and Guattari set the stage for an idea of sound as an affective and political entity, whose role is at the core of the construction of subjectivity. The analysis of the Deleuze and Guattari’s plateau allows to highlight the ways in which sound creates affective and cultural territories and their subsequent subjective positions. In this respect, the body becomes a political battlefield through its ability to experience sound both passively and actively. In the central part of the text, the study of Deleuze and Guattari will be approached by the distinction introduced by Steve Goodman concerning two different developments in sonic forces: a dispersive, centrifuge effect and an attractive, centripetal one. Through this examination, will be possible to draw a common line in the works of certain artists and contemporary researcher such as Kodwo Eshun, Ben Frost and Brian Massumi. The peculiarity of their projects lies in the ability to use sound as an instrument to make non- anthropocentric forces audible and perceptible. One of the main challenge of contemporary times is the ethical and political question on sound and its relation to the human subject. How can we remove the human subjectivity to analyze a sonic approach to the Anthropocene? This question will bring to the examination of certain sonic practices that could be seen as fundamental critical instruments for our present.