Mic Check: Occupy Wall Street and the Space of Audition

Abstract

As used by Occupy Wall Street, the human microphone played a central role in the formation of an auditory space that was animated by the principles of direct democracy that guided the movement. However, the practice also allowed the occupiers to confront and subvert the monopoly on amplified public speech that the government of the City of New York had possessed for nearly eighty years. This paper presents a brief history and analysis of the city's regulation of sound devices, locating the human microphone in a larger struggle over the rights to public speech and assembly.

Keywords:

• Occupy Wall Street
• Human Microphone
• Public Speech
• Noise Control
• Public Address Systems

Notes

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[4] Ted Sammons, “I didn't say look; I said listen”: The People's Microphone, #OWS, and Beyond,” Sounding Out, posted 21 November 2011, http://soundstudiesblog.com/2011/11/21/i-didnt-say-look-i-said-listen-the-peoples-microphone-ows-and-beyond/ (accessed 21 July 2013).

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[7] Occupy Wall Street, “First Communiqué: We Occupy Wall Street,” posted 19 September 2011, http://occupywallst.org/article/first-communique-we-occupy-wall-street/ (accessed 21 July 2013.)

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[31] Max Weber, The Vocation Lectures, ed. David S. Owen and Tracy B. Strong, trans. Rodney Livingstone (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishers, 2004), 33.

[32] Max Weber, The Vocation Lectures, ed. David S. Owen and Tracy B. Strong, trans. Rodney Livingstone (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishers, 2004), 33.

[33] Max Weber, The Vocation Lectures, ed. David S. Owen and Tracy B. Strong, trans. Rodney Livingstone (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishers, 2004), 33.

[34] Attali, Noise, 27.

[35] Mitchell, “The Liberalization of Free Speech.”

[36] Pinto, “Fourth Day of Occupy Wall Street Brings Arrests.”

[37] Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 198.

[38] Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 15.

[39] Judith Butler, “Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street,” #Occupy Los Angeles Reader 1, issue 3 (November 2011): 2.

[40] Arendt, Human Condition, 3.

[41] Arendt, Human Condition, 26.