Duffy CSR 2pp - University of Technology Sydney

Cultural Studies Review volume 16 number 1 March 2010

http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/csrj/index Michelle Duffy 2010

Sound Ecologies

MICHELLE DUFFY

—1

Late summerevening.With thewindows rolleddown, thebellbirds chimearoundme—ping,ping,ping‐ping—asIturnrightintoWallagaLakeRoadanddrivethelastfew kilometres to town through the Bermagui State Forest. I’m here to begin aresearchprojectwitha colleague.We’reaskingpeople to identify the sounds theyfeel to be integral to them in making this place of Bermagui meaningful. Thebellbird’scall is tobeaubiquitouspresence,accompanyingusduringourvisitsaswetalktoresidentsaroundBermagui.Yet,apartfromoneyounglocalwhohadonlyjustreturnedfromstudyinSydney,bellbirdswererarelymentioned,remindingmethat we are each selective in what we hear, that we have ‘deaf spots’ in whichhabituation often deafens us to our local soundscapes.1 Maybe, too, we need todistinguish how we hear from how we listen. Jean‐Luc Nancy defines hearing interms of understanding and comprehension, while listening (the French termécouter)isanexperienceofsoundinwhichwedon’tfullyinterprettheexperience.2Listening,then,isperhapsmorealignedtoouremotionalandbodilyresponsesthanto our sonic environments. Such a framework has implications for understandingthe role of sound in social processes and place‐making. Sound is not simply abackground to the (visual, social) world. Instead, our social relationships help

VOLUME16 NUMBER1 MAR201044

comprise particular spatial contexts, and sounds provide a range of affectiveaffordancesappropriatedbyindividualstodeeplyinformnotonlyhowtomoveandminglebutcruciallyalsohowtothink.3Themeaningsweattributetothosesoundswedonotereflectourvalues,our lives,ouraspirations.4Evenso, thepoundingofthe surf driven by changing tides, frogs heralding rain, wattlebirds amongst thegrevillea, lyrebirds and their clever imitations, even the hum of everyday liferesounding in coffee machines, V8 engines and a fridge—what to make of therecorded cacophony that our participants used to describe Bermagui’s everydaysoundscapes? And can these sounds offer insight into the idiosyncrasies ofrelationships between people and place, and so tell us something of the rural incontemporaryAustralia?

Discussions about what the rural is invariably focus on notions of spatiallocation, of inhabiting spaces apart from that of the metropolitan. The rurallandscapeisdeeplyembeddedinourimagesofwhatitmeanstobeAustralian—inwhich ‘the rural is often positioned on the national scale as a symbolic site forauthentic national values’5—nonetheless, our intellectual framing of rurality assomethingoutbackandbeyondhassignificantimplicationsforourunderstandingofthese spaces. Indeed, we lack an adequate intellectual framework forcomprehending what we mean by rurality, and discussion on what the rural iscontinuestoprovokedebate,andnotonlywithinAustralia.Aruralimaginaryliesatthe heart ofmany constructions of national identity around the globe, a space inwhich a nation’s core image of itself is positioned within an often homogenouspeople’s ‘honest’ and ‘authentic’ relationship to nature.6 Even locating where wemightfindtheruralraisesdifficulties.Forexample,arecentruralhealthworkforceaudit undertakenby theRudd federal governmenthas led to concerns that anewdistance‐based measure for remoteness will change official recognition of ruralareasandsodisadvantagesmallerandmoredenselypopulatedAustralianstates.7Inthisframework,then,weseeruralitydefinedinrelativelysimpleterms,aconflationof geographical remoteness and the actual numerousmeans whereby people liveandexpresstheirrurallives.Yet,asmanyareaware,thewaysinwhichweinhabitspace in the contemporary world troubles such spatially determined definitions.Rather,whatwecanobserveisthatrurallivesarestretched,interruptedandwovenacrossplacesandtime.

Michelle Duffy—Sound Ecologies 45

In the sound diaries gathered and the ensuing interviews, many of theparticipants in our project turn out to be relatively recent arrivals in Bermagui:examplesofthephenomenaofsea‐andtree‐changes.8Theirsoundingsofplacetellmuchof theemotionalandaffectiveprocesses involved insearching forhomeandcommunity within their slice of the Australian rural landscape, while carefullisteningtotheirresponsessuggeststhatdefiningtherural(and,hence,thewhat‐is‐not‐rural)raisescomplexlyentangled ideasofplace.What ismeantbyconceptsofbelonging,homeandcommunityarecomplicatedbyallegiances,histories,relationsandfeelingsstretchedacrosspersonalandpublicspheresaswellasruralandnon‐ruralspaces.

Down‐sizingandsea‐andtree‐changesalsopointtochangesintheZeitgeist.ManycommentatorshavenotedthatintheWestgenerallytherehasbeenasenseoflossofmeaningful community. Some, suchasRichardSennett, argue that thenewglobal economyhasmeant less certaintyand increasedanxiety, leading toamuchmorefragmentedsenseofidentity.9Inresponsetothissenseoffragmentationanddisconnection there has been a shift to ways that create greater emotionalattachment, ways that reconnect us and remake our ties of belonging. Popularculturetapsintotheseconcerns,andinnumerouslifestylemagazineswe’retoldtheoft‐repeated stories of thosewho’vemade the change from ‘a life dictated by theclock’ tooneof ‘peaceandsolitudeofbeing in thenaturalenvironment’.10Weareurged tocreateourownsanctuary, regenerate, rejuvenate, toreturn to thesimplebutimportantthingsoflife:family,friends,neighbours.Thisshiftbringstomindthepotency of our image of homewithin what Gaston Bachelard calls the ‘virtues ofshelter… so simple, so deeply rooted in our consciousness’.11 In a recent issue ofM/CJournal,AndrewGorman‐MurrayandRobynDowlingwrite:

Homeispowerful,emotiveandmulti‐faceted.Asabasicdesire formany,home is saturated with the meanings, memories, emotions, experiencesandrelationshipsofeverydaylife.Theideaandplaceofhomeisperhapstypicallyconfigured throughapositivesenseofattachment,asaplaceofbelonging,intimacy,security,relationshipandselfhood.12

Invariablyemotional,yetitisthebodilyandaffectiveresponses—thoseexperiencesbeyond words, or perhaps the tacit, embodied and personal knowledge we holdaboutplace13—thathavethepotentialtoopenuprecognitionofthebody’sprocess


in understanding place as home, a perception of ‘withness’ in our relationship toplacethatregulatesourcognisanceoftheworld.14Woventhroughthisrelationshipisapoliticsofaffectno lessvital than that foundwithincities,15wherekeenly feltbattles around saving place and redressing lack appear alongside increasedcelebrationsofmarkingout‘our’ruralhomeplaces.Inlisteningtothecollectionsofsounds and stories about (and through) sounds, this article explores the ways inwhich such a focus can draw attention to the intuitive, emotional, and affectiveprocessesofhomeandplace‐makingandwhatthismaymeaninarurallandscape.Drawing on Nigel Thrift’s concept of an ecology of place and Jean‐Paul Thibaud’secologicalapproachtoperception,Isuggestthatcontemporaryheightenedconcernswith regards to loss and lack in rural Australia have led to a nascent emotionalecology—one inwhich individual and intimate connections to the rural require arethinking of how we live community and belonging.16 We need to betterunderstandwhattheseoft‐usedconceptsofcommunityandbelongingmeaninourday‐to‐day.Thismeansthatweneedto listencarefully to thedeeplypersonalandemotional descriptions of place, relationality and the very ‘thinginess’ of being inordertouncoverwhatisoftensodifficulttoarticulateinwords.

—2

Bermagui, a town of around two thousand people located about four hundredkilometressouthofSydney,has longbeenatouristdestination. ‘Discovered’ inthe1930s as the place for big‐game fishing of marlin and tuna, the population nowswells to seven thousand people during the summermonths in search ofwhat isdescribedinNewSouthWalestourismliteratureas‘paradise’.17Bermaguiisalsoasea‐change town with two noticeable demographic characteristics: an increasingproportionofpeopleaged fifty‐fiveandover,manyofwhomareretirees,andthatalmostaquarterof thepopulationhas ‘down‐shifted’ inordertoredresswork‐lifebalance, such as spendingmore timewith family and friends.18The sevenwomenandthreemenwhotookpartinthisprojectwereagedfromtheirtwentiestotheirsixties,andcouldbecategorisedas‘white’and‘privileged’,insofarastheygenerallyhave anAnglo‐Celtic heritage, are tertiary educated, have travelled the globe, andhavechosentoliveonthesouthcoastofNewSouthWales.


The town’s main street, Coluga Street, looks across to the waterfront andDickinsonPark, the venue for local sporting activities and celebrations.Along thissmallshoppingstripareanumberofcafes,ahotel,abakeryandfishco‐op,evenabeauty salon. Art spaces, heritage attractions, restaurants and festival spaces arerecent additions around the town, catering for the arrival of, particularly, olderresidents from Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. Much of its earlier Europeanheritage—theoldwharfandmanyoftheoriginalbuildingsrelatedtothetimberandfishingindustries—hasbeenlost.Lost,too,ismuchofthelocalIndigenousheritage,that of the communities now known as the Yuin nation, living in what was thencalled Two‐Fold Bay by European whalers.19 Material cultural heritage is not theonly loss current residents are concerned with. Reading local newspapers andtalkingtoresidentsovercoffee,thechangesbroughtaboutbytheinfluxoftouristsandnewcomersproducesambivalentresponses.Whiletheeconomicadvantagesforlocal businesses are welcome, the actual changes to social, cultural andenvironmental spacesarenot,aswehear in thisexchangebetween twoBermaguiresidentsoriginallyfromtheUnitedKingdom:

KW: The only problemswe do getwith them [tourists] is the onesthatcomedownandarefromthecity,theybuyaplace—they’veobviouslygot lotsofmoney.Theycomeinandbuyaplaceandthenwanttochangeittohowthecityis.Theyleftthecityandcamehere—

DW: forachange—KW: —to get away from all that and then they want the city back

then!Andwesay,well,nowedon’tneedthat.20This is a well‐known narrative, to be sure, in small rural and coastal towns nowsubject to rapid transformation,where community and place are almost jealouslyguardedfromtheinfluxofcontemporaryurbanlife.ThistensioninBermagui,asinmany of Australia’s coastal towns, is attributed to themovement of sea‐changers,who,althoughseekingamorerelaxedlifestyle,stillexpecttheculturalamenitiesofmajor cities. Even so, these residents do acknowledge the historical and cyclicalpatternsofchangeinruralplaces,asanotherprojectparticipant,SB,explained:

I think it is a lot of peoplewho come to live here just traditionally havelivedintown[i.e.Bermagui]anditwasacheapplaceto liveandaneasy


place to live and you’re not confronted with anything. And, you know,there’s always been a groupwho come in and have got strong opinionsabout change and are more progressive and there’s more progressivepeople now. And there’s actually a huge dividing line in town overdevelopmentissuesandthingsbetweenthosepeople—it’snotthatthere’sa group of people who are anti‐development, it’s just that they wantsustainable development. But there are people who feel veryuncomfortableandthreatenedandangryaboutthat.21

Tensionsbetween longerestablished residentsand thosewhohavemore recentlyarriveddrawattentiontothemeaningsinvestedinthisrural,idylliclandscape.And,although SB’s use of the term ‘sustainable development’ refers to a specific set ofpolitics,allinvolvedhavesomeclearsenseofwantingtohangontotheirparticularviewoftherural imaginaryashome.ThesepassionatedebateswithinBermagui—whether around questioning the timber and fishing industries, real estate andtourist development, sustainability and climate change—and hence debates aboutthe meaning invested in this place, are framed by a powerful affective register.22Uncovering these emotional registers is methodologically difficult yet empiricallyimportant,for,asNigelThriftargues,thereisacrucialspatialpoliticsofaffectmademanifestwithintheeveryday,andwithoutameansofcriticalengagementwithsuchapoliticswecannotunderstandthenewcollectives thatarise.Heexplains that ‘inother(than)words,emotionsformarichmoralarraythroughwhichandwithwhichtheworldisthoughtandwhichcansensedifferentthingseventhoughtheycannotalwaysbenamed’.23Inaddition,asLesBackargues,weneedtotakenoticeofsuchseemingly small details as they can tell us much about the larger social forcesoperatingwithintheeveryday.24What issuggestedbybothThriftandBack is thatthere is a shared understanding of the everyday arising within particular socialcontextsthatmoreoftenthannotescapesourconsciousengagement,butthathasasignificantimpactonthewayswerelatetoothers.25Theuseofsounddiariesinthisproject is a means to access such a politics. Asking participants to consider thesoundsoftheireverydayisameanstocapturewhatresidentsfeelaretheessencesof their lives in Bermagui, and to uncover the embedded narratives of place andcommunity they hold through the personal connections they make with, throughandinthislocality.


—3

EachparticipantwasequippedwithadigitalrecorderthesizeofamobiletelephoneandaskedtorecordsoundsthatmeantsomethingtothemabouttheireverydaylifeinBermagui.Thenparticipantswereaskedtotakepartinaconversationaboutwhatwasrecorded.Whiletheuseofdiarymethodsisnotnew—written,photographandvideo diaries have been used in a number of disciplines—asking participants torecordmeaningfulsoundsisanopportunitytoexperienceplacethroughnon‐visualreferences, and this focus, as recent research demonstrates, provides a means toexploretheintuitiveoraffectiveaspectsofsoundsinoursociallife.26

When asked to make their sound diaries those who participated were,perhaps not surprisingly, drawn to sounds of the non‐human world and, morespecifically, to sounds thatwere locatedwithin the landscape of Bermagui. ThesesoundsprovideavitalclueastohowpeoplemakesenseofBermaguiashome.Manyrevealedtheirongoingconcerntoprotecttheirnature,theirhome,particularlyfromdevelopers who, they feel, are attempting to remake Bermagui as a scaled‐downformofthecity.AsDWtellsme:

Youhave tomake that decision. If youwant tomove to somewhere likeBermaguifromthecity,youcan’texpecttohavethecitylifeinBermagui.You’reeithercominghere‘cosyoulikethetranquillityandthelifestyleofBermagui andabit laidback, butbeautiful all the sameandunspoilt.Oryougetbackintotheratraceofthecitywherethere’sallthenoiseandthepollutionandeverythingelse.27

What appears to ‘make’ Bermagui in these discussions is the non‐human,understood by participants as untouched or unspoilt Nature. Yet while the surf,birdcalls, rain, and frogs could be categorised in terms of a generic set of naturesounds, in the follow‐up interviews what participants actually suggested in theirresponseswas amuchmorenuanced—andhuman‐centred—hearingofplace. Forexample,oneofthefirstthingsDWandKWtalkaboutwhenaskedtoreflectonthesoundsoftheirhomewasthesoundofbirds:

KW: Ifyoureallywanttofindoutwhataplaceislike,getupbeforethesparrowfartsandlisten,andyou’llhearitcomealive.Thatbirdyouusuallyhearfirstthinginthemorning—

DW: —thewattlebird—


KW: —thewattlebird—andhewakes the forestup.And thenafterthat,thentheyallstart.

DW: Themagpiesinthearea,youknow,thenusuallytheotherbirdsdon’tcomearounduntilthesun’sup—

KW: —no—DW: —but thewattle bird’s the early bird. Andwe’ve got possums

here. And they travel between Leo—he’s next door—to mineandnextdoorbutone,andtheygoforthebirdseedaswell.‘Cosweallfeedthebirds.28

There’s adelightful rhythm in thewayeach interjects and reiterates the tellingofthis,andwithinthisexchangetheybothperformtheknowingoftheirhomespace—asKWsays, ‘if youreallywant to findoutwhataplace is like…’ followedby theirlitanyofnamedbirdcallsandthewaystheseconnecttotheunfoldingofdawn.Manyotherparticipantsalsodisplayedsuchanintimatelisteningtoplace,andmostoftenwhentalkingaboutthesurf(althoughnotunexpectedgiventhetown’slocation),asfoundinCB’sdescription:

Anotherthingthat’sdifferentherefrom,andcharacteristicofBermi—anda lotofcoastal townsalonghere—isthesoundof thesurf.Andtherearedifferentsoundshereofsurf inBermagui.Thesoundofthesurf,arathermore gentle surf, you hear around here at what’s called the headlandsarea.Andthere’s thesoundof thesurfwhenthere’saswellcomingfromnorth—atBearesBeach—whereitcrashesontherocksandmakesavery,very loud sound. And youwouldn’t want to live—forme anyway—nearanywhere sortofnearBearesBeachdown there.Even though theyhavesomeveryexpensivesortofpropertiesdownthere.Because,ifthesurf’s,iftheswell’scominginaparticulardirection,they’revery,veryloudcrashesasithitsgreatbigrocksandthatsortofthingdownthereyouknow.29

LikeKWandDW,CBdescribesaverydetailedknowledgeof thesurf,withcertainsurfsoundsassociatedwithveryspecificpartsof thecoastline.CBalso linksthesesoundswith certain attributes ofwhowouldwish to live in theseplaces. In thesedescriptions of sound and placewe begin to discern how peoplemap themselvesintothesespaces.Intheirrecountingofthebirdsoundsatdawn,KWandDWpointto theirownpersonalmappingsofhomewithinparticularnetworks.Forexample,


KW and DW’s list of birdcalls alsomaps through connections with neighbours of‘like‐mindedness’, as in the description of Leo (‘he’s next door—tomine and nextdoorbutone’)andwhoalsofeedsthelocalbirdsandpossums.Homeandnaturearetherefore mapped into networks of the non‐human and human in quite personalwaysthatthenproduceasenseofbelonginginthatplace.

However, it is not just non‐human sounds that are significant to theseprocesses of marking out networks of belonging. Human sounds also serve toconnect participants to Bermagui in unexpected, almost paradoxical ways. Whenaskedtorecordsoundsmeaningfultohereverydayplace,SBrecordedherprinter,sayingasshedidso:

Thisismyprinter,printingoutsomething,andIlovethissoundbecauseitmakesmefeel like I’mgettingsomethingdone.AndIcan leavemyofficeandgooutsideandbeinthebeautifulworld…youmightbeabletohearthepitterpatterofrainoutside.AndIfeellikeI’djustliketowalkaroundand splash in it really. And this placewhen it’swet certainly takes on anewlife,whichIlove.30

This isa lessdirectconnectiontothespecificsofplace;nonetheless,SBgoesontotalk about how, since moving to Bermagui, she wants to be outside. ‘I wasn’t anatureperson,’sheadds,

Naturewassomethingyoulookedatbutdidn’tparticipatein…it’ssortofone dimensional unless you’re in the outdoors. And it’s a very gentleenvironmentanditisverynourishingandIdon’tgetanyofthenourishingunlessI’minit…AndIdidn’treallyunderstandbeinginnaturebefore.31

For those who participated in recording sound diaries, this being in nature wasconsideredoneofthesignificantthingsaboutwhatitmeanstoliveinBermagui,andtheystronglyassertedinconversationthatthisnon‐humanworldistobecherishedandprotected.

Notall sounddiariescontainedsoundsassignedsuchpositiveattributes.Anumber of soundswere classified as noise and experienced as intrusive elementsbreaching Bermagui’s tranquillity. Inevitably these sounds were of the humanworld. For example, the sound recording made by L, a young adult fromneighbouringBega, of the coffeemachine in the cafewhere heworks, a soundhe‘hated’,32 or SB’s fridge,which she notes is ‘big and clumsy and it takes toomuch


poweranditannoysme’.33Thesesoundsofnoisereflectarangeofpersonalpolitics,asinSB’sactiveinvolvementasanactivistwithapracticaldesiretoaddressissuesof the impact of carbon on climate change. However, the sound diaries andconversationstriggeredbytheserecordingsdonotsuggestbelongingtoBermaguiiseasily or only represented through the sounds of the non‐human world. SB’sdiscussion around the sounds of her printer suggests a more subtle relationshipbetween categories of non‐human and human worlds and the ways in whichindividualscreaterelationshipsofbelongingtoBermagui.Moreover,thecomplexityofemotionalresponsestosoundsofthehumanworldisevidentinCB’sdiscussionofwhatcomestomindwhenhehearsanearlyHoldencar‐modeltravellingthroughBermagui’sstreets:

Anothersoundthatremindsmeofsomethingisthesoundofwhat’scalledatwofifty‐threeV8—it’sanoldmodelHolden.It’soneoftheirearlyV8’s—andtheyhaveacharacteristicsound.Andwehadatwofifty‐three inthefamily—whichIgavetoT—he’smyyoungest,andhedrovearoundinthistwofifty‐three.Andhequitelikeditbutitwasonlyatwofifty‐three,soitwasn’tquitepowerfulenoughforhim.Soheendedupsellingitandbothofushaveregrettedthatsince.Notthatwehaveanyill‐feelingaboutitbutIthinkofthiswhenIhearthis—Idon’thavetoseeit,Icanhearitandthinkthat’sthetwofifty‐threeand,youknow,asit’sgoingpast.IthinkofTand,youknow,myyoungestandthosesortsofinteractionswehadaroundthecar.WhenIgavehimthecarandhethenwhengave itupandthought itwasgoingtoimprovehislot,whichhedidn’tdo—he’sgothimselfanotheroldcar,whichhascosthimafortune.It’snotasgood.34

Westarttohearinthisresponsehowthewaysinwhichpeoplelistenandrespondto place is intricately woven into their personal geography, history and socialnetworksthatextendbeyondthetime‐spaceoftown’sborders.Inthisinstance,thesoundofaV8engineremindsCBofhisrelationshipwithhisyoungestson,andhetalksoftheregretbothfeltwhenthatcarwasnolongerapartofhowtheyinteract.This engine sound reconnects CB into deeply personal networks of family,overlayingBermagui’sstreetswithmemoriesofanotherhomeplace.Thesefocuseson sound, then, giveusaglimpse into thediverse relationshipsbetween listening,emotionsandbelonging,andhowwemaybegintogainsome,albeitpartial,access


to a spatiality of feelings. As Nichola Wood and Susan Smith suggest, this issignificantinhowwemakesenseoftheworld.35Ouremotionalresponseslocateuswithin specific networks of human and non‐human relationships, and ofmultipletime‐spaces,thatthengiverisetoaplaceinwhichwecreateafeelingofhomeandbelonging.

Asthesesounddiariessuggest,soundisnotsimplyaphysiologicaloutcomeofhearingsonicqualitiesand,therefore,merelyabackgroundtowhatishappeningin theeveryday.Rather,whatoftengoesundetectedaretheways inwhichcertainsounds are accorded particular personal and ideologically loaded meanings thathave an emotional impact. For example, sound only becomes meaningful whenlistened to in situ, as in theexampleof the throbof aV8engineandhow this canemotionallyconnectanindividualtoanother. JackKatzputstheembodiedprocessof affect in this way, ‘the doing of emotions is a process of breaking bodilyboundaries, of tears spilling out, rage burning up, and as laughter bursts out’.36Affectandemotionsopenusup to theworldand toothers. Ifwe focusonwhat isseenandtalkedabout,ratherthanwhatisheard—andtheverypersonalmeaningsattributed—what can be obscured are the more nuanced and complex ways thatinterconnectionsbetweenpeople andplace are constitutedandmediated, and theways emotion and affect are significant to these processes. Asmanyhavepointedout, our more usual emphasis on representational practices also persuades us toperceiveourselvesasseparatebeings,disconnectedfromourworld.37Yet,asthesesounddiariesdemonstrate, a focus on sounddirects our attention toprocesses ofconnectivityandthenetworksinwhichwemayfeelasenseofbelonging(aswellasinstancesofalienation).

—4

InarecentpostingontheonlinesiteTED,RennyGleeson,oftheadvertisingagencyWieden and Kennedy, talked about how we share narratives in order to make acommunity;that‘whatwesharebecomesthecontextinwhichweliveandwhoweare’.38 In the sounds collected and in conversationswith the participants, what isshared are relationsbetween the individual’s inner andouterworlds, and inboththe collection and telling of the collection we can gain some partial access toaffective embodied ways of mapping the subject in place. Such relational


conceptualisationsofhomeare,asGorman‐MurrayandDowlingpointout,‘afusionoftheimaginativeandaffective…anactuallocationwhichcanembodyandrealiseour need for belonging, affirmation and sustenance’.39 Even so, thesemappings ofhome and belonging are never simply about social location and constructions ofidentity. As the examples discussed here demonstrate, these various mappingsstructure individuals as social and spatial beings, creating a form of domestic (orperhaps domesticated) space in which people feel at home. Rather than beinglimitedbygeographicalortemporallocations,theseareactuallyintertwinedina‘setof intersecting and variable ideas and feelings, which are related to context, andwhich…extendacrossspacesandscales,[that]connectsplaces’.40Whilebelongingis about emotional attachment, about feeling ‘at home’ and ‘safe’,wedobelong inmany different ways and to many different objects, people and places.41 We alsoexperiencesuchbelonginginavarietyofforms,fromanabstractfeelingaboutwhatwe may think of as our place or community to a much more concrete notion ofbelonging in which we participate in activities that display our allegiances andaffiliations. In thinking aboutwhat constitutes the rural, we need to consider theaffectiveregistersoperatinginplace‐making.AsKyeAskinsargues,itisnotsimplythat nature can be conflated with the rural, but that we ‘need to move beyondunderstanding nature and place as only socially constructed, and consider howlandscape issensed’.42Apoliticsofbelongingtakes these feelingsofattachment inordertocreatebelonginginparticularwaysortoparticularcollectiveidentities,andthese attachments and identities arise in the narratives that people tell aboutthemselves.43

The significance of sound in such an approach is that it enables us toconsiderhowplace,homeandbelongingareconstitutedthroughaffectandemotion.First,soundisameansoffixingourselvestoplacewhileinastateofmoving(bothphysically and metaphorically) through spaces,44 as the narratives of nature andsound told by KW, DW and CB demonstrate. The space in which these audibleinteractionsbetweenselfandplaceoccurenablesaconnectiontothatplace,asthismeeting of human and non‐human creates ameans to be emplaced,where ‘homeenfolds and carries some sense of desire for positive feelings of attachment’.45Second, a focus on sound brings us back to our selves and our place so that werecognise we are not separate and autonomous entities but interlinked, so


generating a possibility of belonging that then often spills out into helpingindividualsmakesenseoftheirpositionwithintheeveryday.Thesesonicprocesses,then, are both personal and communal, and significant to our connection to placeandtoothers.Finally,soundproblematisesanyneatseparationofselfandnon‐self,of object and subject, as it gives the illusion of our continuity with the world assoundpasses throughand into thebody.AsCB’sdeceptivelysimpledescriptionofthesoundsaroundhishousedemonstrate,‘ComingupMurrahStreet,[thecarsare]a little bit in my personal space but still, you know, the sound of the cars goingthroughtherainwatertellsmethateverything’sinorderandthat’showitallshouldbe’.46

NigelThrift’selaborationonwhathehascallednon‐representationaltheoryis useful in tracing these affective processes. His relational approach signals theinterconnectedness of place through practice rather than representation.47 Such aperspective—what Thrift calls an ecology of place—also helps in understandinghowplacescometobeshaped,understoodanddefined.Bermagui isruralbecauseof the interactions of a wide range of entities—material, social, physical, cultural,humanandnon‐human—thatareactivelyembodiedintheknowledgesofpeopleintheir everyday lives.48 This does not mean this is a rural town because it is in aparticulargeographical location, although this is a contributing factor.Rather, it isthe dialogic set of relations between self, place and community located within aglobal matrix of other places and social relations that then go into constitutingBermaguiasrural.Thisissignificanttoconceptualisingthedynamicsofruralplace‐makingprocessesthatavoidssimpledichotomiesaround ideasof theurban/rural,culturallydiverse/monoculturalframeworksusedtotalkaboutruralspaces.AsKyeAskins suggests, to use the more progressive concept of transrurality ‘bothencapsulatesthespecificitiesofplaceand isopentomobilityanddesire’suchthatthe notion of the rural as an exclusionary site of (white) national identity ischallenged.49 In this framework for thinking about place, belonging is an affectivequality in and through which we orient ourselves within noise, silence andvibrations, and consequently come to feel ‘inplace’ through thepsychological andphysiological responses of our bodies.50 Out of this arises our intensely personalrelations toplace thatare takenup inmorepublicways; theemotionalecologyofbelonging.


—5

Weneed to recognise, then, that our personal and subjective experiences of placearenot trivial things.Ourperceptionofplaces,and feelingsofconnectionto them,startwitheachofusasperceivingsubjects,which,asJean‐PaulThibaudpointsout,positionsus‘rightinthemiddleoftheworld[we]perceive...thatlinksandunifiesthemanycomponentsofasituation’.51Thesounddiarymethodenablesparticipantstoconsiderhowthepersonalispolitical,howourexperiencesandtheemotionstheytrigger are integral to ‘conceptions of self identity and spatial practices throughlandscape as performed, enactive and emergent’.52 It is from such an emplacedstrategy that we can consider our shared understandings and desires for a ruralimaginary. The ‘big picture’ concerns such as global warming, salinity and themovement of youth out of rural areas need to begin with acknowledging theimmediacyofourrelationshipsandthesignificanceofsuchpersonaldynamicsthatnonethelessextendbeyondthelocal.53

Whenaskedtorecordhereverydaysounds,P,likemanyoftheparticipants,recordedrain,thesurfandbirdcalls.Butshealsoincludedthesoundsofherdogasshe gives it a bone to chewon. You can justmakeoutwhat shewhispers—‘Here!Goodboy!’—beforeacrunchingofboneresonates.‘That’smybeautifuldogchewingafreshbone,’shesaysclearlyintothemicrophone.Inthebackground,youcanjustmakeoutthepingofthebellbirds.

—

MichelleDuffyisasociologylecturerintheSchoolofHumanities,Communicationsand Social Science at Monash University. Hermain research interests include theintersections of poststructuralist thought with festivals, music, community, placeandthebody.<[email protected]>

—ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

AppreciationisextendedtoSheenaBoughen,directoroftheFourWindsFestivalBoard;theAustraliaResearchCouncil’sCulturalResearchNetwork;totheparticipantswhokeptsounddiaries;toGordonWaittforcollegialityandcomments;toLisaSlaterforreadinganearlydraftofthispaper;andtotwoanonymousreviewersfortheircomments.


—NOTES

1BarryTurax,AcousticCommunication,AblexPublishing,Westport,CT,2001,pp.98–100.2Jean‐LucNancy,Listening,FordhamUniversityPress,NewYork,2007.SeealsoPaulSimpson,‘“FallingonDeafEars”:APostphenomenologyofSonorousExperience’,Environment&PlanningA,vol.41,2008,pp.2556–75.3TiaDeNora,MusicinEverydayLife,CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge,2000;Jean‐PaulThibaud,‘FromSituatedPerceptiontoUrbanAmbiences’,Centrederechercheméthodlogiqued’architecture(Nantes),FirstInternationalWorkshoponArchitecturalandUrbanAmbientEnvironment,6–8February2002,Nantes,Cerma,Ecoled’architecture,2002.SupportCD;GordonWaittandMichelleDuffy,‘ListeningandTourismStudies’,AnnalsofTourismResearch,forthcoming.4Forarangeofexamplesofthis,refertoRosBandt,MichelleDuffyandDollyMacKinnon(eds),HearingPlaces:Sound,Place,Time,Culture,CambridgeScholarsPublishing,Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne,2007.5AndrewGorman‐Murray,KateDarian‐SmithandChrisGibson,‘ScalingtheRural:ReflectionsonRuralCulturalStudies’,AustralianHumanitiesReview,45,2008,p.43.6Forexample,therehasbeenarecentcritiqueinthegeographicliteratureofEnglishruralityanditsassociationwithanassumedwhiteEnglishidentity,includingKyeAskins,‘CrossingDivides:EthnicityandRurality’,JournalofRuralStudies,vol.25,2009,pp.365–75;CarolineKnowles,‘TheLandscapeofPost‐ImperialWhitenessinRuralBritain’,EthnicandRacialStudies,vol.31,2008,pp.167–84;DavidMatless,LandscapeandEnglishness,Reaktion,London,2008;RuthPanelli,PhilHubbard,BradCoombes,SandieSuchet‐Pearson,‘De‐centringWhiteRuralities:EthnicDiversity,RacialisationandIndigenousCountrysides’,JournalofRuralStudies,vol.25,2007,pp.355–64;DivyaTolia‐Kelly,‘Mobility/Stability:BritishAsianCulturesof‘LandscapeandEnglishness’,EnvironmentandPlanningA,vol.38,2006,pp.341–58.AsimilarcritiqueisdevelopingwithinAustralianruralstudies,seeforexample,KirrilyJordan,BrankaKrivokapic‐ShokoandJockCollins,‘TheEthnicLandscapeofRuralAustralia:Non‐Anglo‐CelticImmigrantCommunitiesandtheBuiltEnvironment’,JournalofRuralStudies,vol.25,2009,pp.376–85.7LeoShanahan,‘ZonePlan“WillClose”HospitalsinRuralAreas’,Age,31January2009,p.9.Whatisnowcharacterisedasruralandregionalcouldbereclassifiedas‘innerregional’and,hence,theseplacesmaybeineligibleforrural‐targetedgrants.8Forafullerdiscussionofthemethodsused,refertoMichelleDuffyandGordonWaitt,‘SoundDiaries:AMethodforListeningtoPlace’,Aether:TheJournalofMediaGeography,forthcoming;WaittandDuffy,forthcoming;NicholaWood,MichelleDuffyandSusanJ.Smith,‘TheArtofDoing(Geographiesof)Music’,EnvironmentandPlanningD:SocietyandSpace,vol.25,no.5,2007,pp.867–89.Theterms‘sea‐change’and‘tree‐change’refertoAustralianformsofinternalmigrationdrivenbylifestyleandenvironmental,ratherthaneconomic,factors.Foracritiqueofthesephenomena,seeNicoleGurranandEdBlakely,‘SufferaSeaChange?ContrastingPerspectivesTowardsUrbanPolicyandMigrationinCoastalAustralia’,AustralianGeographer,vol.38,no.1,2007,pp.113–31.9RichardSennett,TheCultureofNewCapitalism,YaleUniversityPress,NewHaven,2006.10BarbaraSweeney,‘HottoTrot’,AustralianCountryStyle,September2006,p.13;VirginiaImhoff,‘TheGemintheCorner’,AustralianCountryStyle,September2006,p.97.11GastonBachelard,ThePoeticsofSpace,trans.M.Jolas,BeaconPress,Boston,1994(1958),p.12.12AndrewGorman‐MurrayandRobynDowling,‘Home’,M/C,vol.10,no.4,2007.Online<http://journal.media‐culture.org.au/0708/01‐editorial.php>13MichaelPolanyi,TheTacitDimension,UniversityofChicagoPress,ChicagoandLondon,2009.14EdwardCasey,TheFateofPlace:APhilosophicalHistory,UniversityofCaliforniaPress,Berkeley,1997,p.214


15NigelThrift,‘IntensitiesofFeeling:TowardsaSpatialPoliticsofAffect’,GeografiskaAnnalerB,vol.86,2004,pp.57–78.Thriftarguesthatcitiesareexperiencedintermsofthe‘utterubiquityofaffectasavitalelement’,yethenotestherehasbeenlittleseriousstudyinthisfield.16NigelThrift,‘StepstoanEcologyofPlace’,inDoreenMassey,JohnAllenandPhilipSarre(eds),HumanGeographyToday,PolityPress,Cambridge,1999,pp.295–322;Thibaud,2002.17JudiHearn,BermaguiByTheSea,PenmarkPress,Bermagui,2004;NickyGordon,‘Editorial’,SouthCoastStyle,Jan–Feb,2008,p.7.18AustralianBureauofStatistics,Report4102.0AustralianSocialTrends,2004,<http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/1020492cfcd63696ca2568a1002477b5/df9b2318e79ab891ca256e9e001fb3e8!OpenDocument>.19MarkMcKennaLookingforBlackfellas’Point:AnAustralianHistoryofPlace,UNSWPress,Sydney,2002,pp.192–201.20Interviewwithauthor,19March2008.21Interviewwithauthor,5February2008.22Thrift,‘IntensitiesofFeeling’,p.58.23Thrift,‘IntensitiesofFeeling’,p.60.24LesBack,TheArtofListening,Berg,Oxford,2007,p.10.25MericGertler,‘TacitKnowledgeandtheEconomicGeographyofContext,or,theUndefinableTacitnessofBeing(There)’,JournalofEconomicGeography,vol.3,2003,pp.75–99.SeealsoPolyani,TheTacitDimension.26GaryAnsdell,‘RethinkingMusicandCommunity:TheoreticalPerspectivesinSupportofCommunityMusicTherapy’,inMercédèsPavlicevicandGaryAnsell(eds),CommunityMusicTherapy,JessicaKingsleyPublishers,LondonandPhiladelphia,2004,pp.91–113;TiaDeNora,MusicinEverydayLife,CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge,2000;MichelleDuffy,GordonWaittandChrisGibson,‘GetintotheGroove:TheRoleofSoundinGeneratingaSenseofBelongingthroughStreetParades’,Altitude,April2007,availableonlineat<www.altitude21c.com/>;SusanJ.Smith,‘Soundscape’,Area,vol.16,1994,pp.232–40;NicholaWoodandSusanSmith,‘InstrumentalRoutestoEmotionalGeographies’,SocialandCulturalGeography,vol.5,no.4,2004,pp.533–48;Wood,DuffyandSmith.27Interviewwithauthor,19March2008.28Interviewwithauthor,19March2008.29Interviewwithauthor,5February2008.30Sounddiaryrecording,4February2008.31Interviewwithauthor,5February2008.32Interviewwithauthor,7February2008.33Interviewwithauthor,5February2008.34Interviewwithauthor,5February2008.35WoodandSmith.36JackKatz,HowEmotionsWork,UniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago,1999,p.322.37SusanJ.Smith,‘Performingthe(Sound)world’,EnvironmentandPlanningD:SocietyandSpace,vol.18,2000,pp.615–37;Duffy,WaittandGibson;DuffyandWaitt,‘SoundDiaries’,forthcoming.38See<www.ted.com>,thesitefortheannualTechnologyEntertainmentDesignconference.39Gorman‐MurrayandDowling.40AlisonBluntandRobynDowling,Home,Routledge,London,2006,p.2,quotedinGorman‐MurrayandDowling.41NiraYuval‐Davis,KalpanaKannabiran,andUlrikeM.Vieten‘Introduction:SituatingContemporaryPoliticsofBelonging’,inNiraYuval‐Davis,KalpanaKannabiran,andUlrikeM.Vieten(eds),TheSituatedPoliticsofBelonging,Sage,London,2006,pp.7–8.42KyeAskins,‘CrossingDivides:EthnicityandRurality’,JournalofRuralStudiesvol.25,2009,p.370.


43Yuval‐Davis,etal,p.2.44PaulCarter,TheSoundinBetween:Voice,Space,Performance,UNSWPress,Sydney,1992.45Gorman‐MurrayandDowling.46Interviewwithauthor,5February2008.47NigelThrift,NonRepresentationalTheorySpace,Politics,Affect,Routledge,NewYork,2008;Thrift,‘IntensitiesofFeeling’,p.60–8.SeealsoGordonWaittandRuthLane’sdiscussionofThriftin‘Four‐wheelDrivescapes:EmbodiedUnderstandingsoftheKimberley’,JournalofRuralStudiesvol.23,2007,pp.158–9.48WaittandLane,p.158.SeealsoAskins.49Askins,p.366.50Duffyetal,2007.51Thibaud,pp.2,3.52Askins,p.371.53Onthispoint,seealsoAndrewGorman‐Murray’sarticleinthisissueofCulturalStudiesReview,‘AnAustralianFeelingforSnow:TowardsUnderstandingCulturalandEmotionalDimensionsofClimateChange’,CulturalStudiesReview,vol.16,no.1,March2010.

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