‘Tis the season for cacophony! In what has come to be an anarchist tradition, the noise demo gathers like-minded individuals outside the most explicit and imposing examples of architectural control (jails/prisons) to cause a stir in the nascent new year. While it’s odd to frame rebellious behavior within arbitrary calendar dates, there are practical reasons for the timing: for example, I’ve found police to be much more tolerable of fireworks shot into jail entrances in the early hours of January 1st compared to other nights. Nights of excess like these can be a refreshing demonstration of the limits of policing (if only for an hour or two).
While I don’t mean to glorify the tactic of a noise demo, I’m hard-pressed to think of another form of participation that couples collective, improvised sound-making in explicit opposition to something so painfully obvious: we lock people up in cages when rules are broken. Imprisonment as a fact of life is so assumed that we’re forced to “out-compete” other noises for a moment of attention and remembrance.
What is noise? At its base, noise consists of energy that conveys information through sound. The interpretation of sound is another matter that exists within a particular context of acceptability and standards (these standards are how the pen-holders demarcate noise vs. music, sense vs. nonsense, etc.). Within this context, noise can be conflictual and challenging in its approach. Perhaps a core interest in calling myself an anarchist is my ability to make noise within a context that favors disruption and has a tradition in exploring breaks from rather than returns to form (reform). Noise can be judged as sound outside its "proper" place, something that, on a minor level, challenges order. This language is even codified in our laws as “noise ordinances” and “noise complaints.” The intentional consequence of subversive actions—the ability to make noise—can be a surprisingly fitting example of autonomy for an anarchist.
In keeping with this cute metaphor, I’d argue anarchists are interested in sustaining a certain conflictual timbre (longer than a NYE noise demo) through dissident literature, online conversations between edgelords, and the explosive sound of bombs to name some obvious examples.
Noise, however, is not inherently anarchic in its use. I can’t think of a better example of this than the Italian Futurists' emphasis on incorporating noise into modern musical practice on their way to promoting and practicing fascism. Never mind the fact that my whole “disruption” spiel has been successfully re-appropriated and sold by capitalist technologists for record profits.
Despite this, I'm still a believer that making noise opens up new possibilities worth exploring.
How do you make noise? What kind of noise is relevant to anarchists and what else is just...noise? Is silence ever preferable or even possible?
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intonarumori
Comments
People here blow up lots of
anon (not verified) Mon, 12/26/2022 - 16:16
People here blow up lots of quarter dynamite sticks for Christmas season and New Year's. It sounds like a war zone, some people also shoot at the sky. I think using fireworks for a demo during this time gets lost among the rest of celebratory noises, and people will just assume it's a normal Christmas thing from a distance. Funny how this celebratory dynamite is a more potent explosive than many of the homemade ones made by anarchists for symbolic attacks.
I think your comment gets lost in billions of online comments.
anon (not verified) Mon, 12/26/2022 - 17:37
In reply to People here blow up lots of by anon (not verified)
Anyways, the goal isn't to make fireworks for "the people" outside, but the people inside. Stupid meaningless fireworks happen all the time, but anything can take meaning within the proper context.
I’m more thinking that this
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 08:19
In reply to I think your comment gets lost in billions of online comments. by anon (not verified)
I’m more thinking that this is a good season to acquire real explosives and use them in the cover of noises. Imagine blowing a hole in prison walls, or blowing anything else up really. Normies have far too much misallocated firepower.
people will buy large
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 12:46
In reply to I’m more thinking that this by anon (not verified)
people will buy large quantities of explosives (fireworks) and then not even blow up anything cool with them. just giving animals and people bad anxiety for nothing, or worse, to celebrate something
We must police the way people
TranslationBot (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 13:00
In reply to people will buy large by anon (not verified)
We must police the way people are allowed to enjoy themselves!
complaining does not equal
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 13:15
In reply to We must police the way people by TranslationBot (not verified)
complaining does not equal policing unless you take it too far like a karen, plus this person's suggesting people blow shit up instead of make noise for the sake of it, maybe you don't like the unsolicited suggestion, but it's not policing
BEEP
It's Policing Bot (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 13:19
In reply to complaining does not equal by anon (not verified)
BEEP
I once saw a cop car get a quarter stick at base of windshield
Luke From DC (not verified) Sat, 12/31/2022 - 19:46
In reply to People here blow up lots of by anon (not verified)
DC July 4 2013 or 2014, cops were trying to control a street in NE when one suddenly got a lit quartet stick stuck at the base of his windshield. Swerving and braking he barely managed to get rid of it before it detonated. Had it stayed put he would have been wearing that windshield glass.
Cops cleared out for the night after that one, wasn't worth that kind of risk for them.
Guys mostly, occasionally
anon (not verified) Mon, 12/26/2022 - 20:49
Guys mostly, occasionally women, revving the fuck out of engines and burning rubber in suburban streets is revolutionary (literally redline rpm) noise of frustrated folk, often with low self esteem and feelings of impotence (and the comparitive small size of their penises)
Did you ever consider that
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 00:31
In reply to Guys mostly, occasionally by anon (not verified)
Did you ever consider that maybe their penises are average size and you just have an enormous anus! Probably not since you are seething in ressentiment against anarcho-gearheads having some fun!
Lol, beautiful, but no, I
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 00:57
In reply to Did you ever consider that by anon (not verified)
Lol, beautiful, but no, I rise above the mediocre horde in all dimensions!
Translation from brodude speech
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 09:30
In reply to Did you ever consider that by anon (not verified)
"uuugh anarcho-gearheads having some fun, muuuuh!" > > > "TUFF normies having some "fun" burning morney on gas just for pushing a pedal and being amazed by industrial consumer products, in the suburb".
Many exemplifications on /r/IdiotsInCar if needed.
NooooOooooo don't burn
TranslationBot (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 11:37
In reply to Translation from brodude speech by anon (not verified)
NooooOooooo don't burn precious money! NooOooo don't have fun in groups of friends with things at your disposal!!!!1!!! Be like me seething with ressentiment or you're a brodude idiot!
You can have fun with groups of friends
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 16:31
In reply to NooooOooooo don't burn by TranslationBot (not verified)
you don't need a car for this, you stupid. You just got influenced by TV/film ads.
But what the ads didn't tell u... is you have fun with friends while -oh nooooes!- burning cars!
No, "you stupid"! What is a
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 16:38
In reply to You can have fun with groups of friends by anon (not verified)
No, "you stupid"! What is a TV? What are ads? Did you forget that Ublock and the interwebz are a thing in your seething ressentiment cloud, boomer? Don't even know how to have fun with a car because you go influenced by boomer shit that says you can't, rite?
2Fun4Cars!
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 23:06
In reply to No, "you stupid"! What is a by anon (not verified)
Oooooh so you are the bland conformist zoomer type, then? Who got their culture from Instagram and 96-months car loans, yeees?
Not even! As you still got the same programming than earlier gens. Yeeees. Welcome to a whole new dimension as you realize how Hollywood blockbusters are basically a lil more than just ads for cars and other consumer crap, but mostly cars as that's the biggest fucking industry since WW2.
Go read a few books now, DOUCHE.
It's gotta be => farting <=
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 06:09
It's gotta be => farting <= as the most 'naturally rebellious' , 'socially satirical' and 'organically anti-ritual' noise, and the most anarchic form known to exist!
an example of collective use
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 08:14
an example of collective use of noise as protest is when in various places people chose to beat pots and pans at a set hour, and everyone makes a ruckus, whether it is from their homes or at the demo
i think that if a protest isn
anon (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 08:15
i think that if a protest isn’t loud, it’s not disrupting anything, it’s the least they can do, to be a nuisance to those that don’t like it
toot bong of catnip
le_tootsie (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 09:53
My preferred way to make noise noise noise is to open up my iPhone 15 and connect it to my bluetooth speaker and play some real hardcore shit while walking around in the woods and public trails outside. My second favorite way to make noise noise noise is the sound my toots make when I launch them off into the fediverse. TOOT TOOT. BEEP BEEP MFER
Shannon developed the famous
Comrade_Query (not verified) Tue, 12/27/2022 - 13:43
Shannon developed the famous information theory. In this theory, Shannon put forward an idea that noise is one of the necessary elements in the information communication. Shannon proved that we can reliably transmit units of information over noisy electrical channels. In the communication theory, noise refers to anything which blocks between message source and destination. It obstructed the process of coding and decoding information. Noise cannot be thoroughly avoided or eliminated, but it can be controlled or reduced as far as possible.
In the information communication, the exist of noise can lead to the inconsistency of information between source and destination. Therefore, the communication might be unsuccessful and the information might be untrue. Noise can be divided into the following categories. First is physical noise, such as the noise from external environment and the interference of the third when two are having communication, etc. The second noise is semantic noise. This is because message source and destination have different understanding of some terms and grammar which might lead to communication barriers. The third noise is because of the differences in social status, gender, occupation, economic level between message source and destination. This might cause interference and information distortion.
The uproarious "Woo Hoo!"
anon (not verified) Sat, 12/31/2022 - 20:24
The uproarious "Woo Hoo!" sound in unison from the local identarians at a packed out Washington bar on New Year's eve where I came out as being heterosexual and apolitical.
The real noises are those
Elime (not verified) Sun, 01/01/2023 - 10:28
The real noises are those that are emitted within *AARGH!* the semantic reality, *BANG!* the onomatopeiac sounds that can *rumblerumble rumble* be expressed *zipZANG* in every language *Pfttt* and which give *FFFAAARRRRTT* literature much of its *POWBAM* description of *OooooOoooNnnooKARASHdribbledribblePOOP* reality.
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