Echoes in the capitol, echoes in history: architectural acoustics, media archaeology, and the infrapolitics of reverberation

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the notion of infrapolitics as the political dimension of reverberation and architectural acoustics. This aim is approached through a media-archaeological counterreading of the history of poor acoustics in the former chamber of the US House of Representatives supplied by historian Emily Thompson, as well as through juxtaposition of other cases of reverberation envelopes from the history of architectural acoustics. A media archaeological approach to reverberation and architectural acoustics, it is argued, approaches infrapolitics as a speculative understanding of the effect of architectural acoustics on early American democracy, and of architectural acoustics on discourse in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Democracy
• architectural acoustics
• media archaeology
• history of sound
• reverberation
• infrapolitics

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the editor of Sound Studies and the two anonymous reviewers who gave invaluable feedback in helping refine this piece. The author also thanks Alex Rehding, Laura Frahm, Tom Conley, Ernst Karel, John Durham Peters, Kyla Wazana Thompkins, Lindsey Lodhie, Brock Perry, and Daniel D’Amore for their comments and feedback at earlier stages of writing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The old hall is now called National Statuary Hall, and houses a collection of statues of notable men and women in American history–– fittingly silent occupants for an acoustically unsatisfactory room.

2. This paper plays on multiple senses of the word image. In the architectural acoustic sense, image can also be shorthand for the reverberation envelope of a given room or space. This sense is echoed in other uses such as “stereo image” to refer to dual-channel sound reproduction. In this paper, “images” of spaces are by extension historical sketches of reverberation envelopes, especially in spaces like the House of Representatives chamber where environmental sound management becomes a salient part of discourse about a built space.

3. Sabine von Fischer (2018) has noted that monumentality was both seen as befitting spaces for public, diplomatic discourse while also presenting an acoustic challenge for architects seeking to amplify the voice via architectural means.

4. US Office of the Architect of the Capitol, “National Statuary Hall,” http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-buildings/national-statuary-hall.

5. See Brady, Schlozman, and Verba’s (2012) The Unheavenly Chorus for an extended analysis of the concept of voice not as a sonic form but as representation of political will in American democracy.

6. In Listening for Democracy: Recognition Representation, Reconciliation (2014) Dobson reminds us of the Aristotelian roots of the idea that speech is the “primordial political noise” and that Hobbes follows Aristotle in suggesting that speech is the basis for politics through speech’s capacity to effectuate contractual agreements between parties (140–1).

7. How well their constituencies were actually represented is altogether a different matter. This is what Sabine von Fischer has summarised in the article on the acoustics of the League of Nations as the debate between “diplomatic understanding” and the “literal, acoustic intelligibility of speech.” The most important point here is that there was much emphasis placed on the voice as a symbolic carrier of political will in American democracy.

8. Ibid., 418.

9. In using the word “reproduce” I am calling to mind one of the well-known fallacies about film documented by film theorist Rick Altman. Altman notes, “By and large, critics remain convinced that sound is literally reproduced by a high quality recording and playback system … Recordings do not reproduce sound, they represent it.” This is important to remember, but this begs the question: does all sound represent, always? We might take Altman’s claim a step further and argue that recorded sound at most represents, and at the very least, it merely “presents,” without the implied repetition of the “re-.” (Altman, R. 2012, 228).

10. In acoustics, a “baffle” is a structure or device that dampens or reduces reverberation.

11. While the original architectural design is understood to be highly functional for the purpose of carrying the voice of an imam, newspapers reported on restorations that involved the spurious addition of a loudspeaker system.

12. The first measure of absorption Sabine defined was equivalent to the absorptive power of one Sanders Theatre seat cushion. While the Sanders Theatre remains an important location for lecturers and speakers visiting Harvard, it is naturally today fitted with electrical audio equipment and is not particularly noted for its acoustics one way or another.

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T. Brandon Evans

T. Brandon Evans is a media scholar and sound art practitioner whose work addresses questions of sound, space, visuality and media. He also works on Sikh and Punjabi-language audiovisual media. He creates works of sound art and music as a supplement to traditional research activities. He holds an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA in Linguistics from Georgetown University. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at Harvard University in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies.