Glitch/Failure: Constructing a Queer Politics of Listening

Abstract

This article is an attempt to bring sound studies discourses into dialogue with queer theory, to “queer” the field of sound studies, and to open up queer theory to the textual canon of sonic art. Concerned with notions of failure, this article deals with glitch and examines the result when error, malfunction and failure are amplified within systems. The author argues that the glitch, a key conceit of experimental music, is a productive framework for theorizing minoritarian politics and alternative modes of knowledge production.