Automobility and the Power of Sound

Abstract

This article analyses the connections between forms of solitary automobile habitation and the use of mobile sound technologies in automobiles: the radio, cassette, sound system and mobile phone. It does this through an empirically informed analysis of automobile use. In doing so it re-evaluates our understanding of the occupation of space and place, arguing that traditional concepts of urban space have underestimated the active role that the users of these communication technologies might have in transforming the meaning of these spaces as they pass through them. The article points to the powerful, and potentially problematic, role that sound technologies play in the daily experience of moving through the city.