Paper short abstract:

I will explore how sound and the material settings of a Brazilian favela play into the construction of moral atmospheres. I will also examine how the moving bodies of my informants occupy that nocturnal intensity, and the sort of agency they seek to attain through participation in the nightlife.

Paper long abstract:

I step out on my balcony and look towards the red neon sign some hundred meters away, Stop Time. The temperature is pleasant, and the sun far beyond sight. The favela and the lives that unfold therein are received differently by the senses depending on what time of day or night one is out and about. In particular, the madrugada, or the dawn, transformed my informants' perception of their surroundings. Away from the light and heat of the tropical sun, there was a change in the demographics of the people who were seen in the streets, the kinds of activities which took place, in the affective states (Favret-Saada, 2009) and the moralities of what could and should be done. The favela became another. The madrugada was the time when youths would be out for the street parties; it was a time of bodies dancing, of drinking alcohol and consuming illicit drugs, of buzzing motorbikes, all the while with the beats of different music genres colliding in the audioscape. A time of pulsating energy and seduction. This favela comes to life at night, shielded by darkness and filled with funk music. In this presentation, I will explore how sound and the material settings of the favela play into the construction of moral atmospheres (Bille, 2013). Furthermore, I will examine how the moving bodies of my informants occupy those nocturnal intensities, and the sort of agency they seek to attain through participation in the nightlife of the favela.