Paper short abstract:

Based on 24-months of fieldwork conducted in Egypt between 2010 and 2016, this paper examines the political potential of sound in space to transform public feeling. It argues that sonic atmosphere is an important site where differently-positioned social actors vie for power.

Paper long abstract:

After an initially successful revolution in 2011, military rule returned to power in Egypt in 2013. Ruling through a palpable "barrier of fear," it criminalized "unauthorized" music performance and public gatherings. In these conditions, many "do-it-yourself" (DIY) musicians have opted to abandon "politics" to focus instead on musically engaging "energy," "mood," and "atmosphere." Through listening, they seek to transform public feelings of depression and paranoia to more positive affective registers that they believe will make "the coming revolution" successful. This paper examines the political potential of sound in space under conditions of authoritarianism. Based on 24-months of fieldwork conducted in Egypt between 2010 and 2016, it argues that sonic atmosphere is an important site where differently-positioned social actors vie for power via a manipulation of affect. In conversation with theories of the public, sound studies, as well as queer and feminist theories of the body, this paper demonstrates that Arab and Islamic philosophies on the affective potential of sound expand ongoing feminist interventions in Western scholarship by foregrounding how listening, space, and the body intersect to produce political subjects.