European University Institute Library

Sound and safe, a history of listening behind the wheel, Karin Bijsterveld, Eefje Cleophas, Stefan Krebs and Gijs Mom

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [199]-221) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Sound and safe

bibliography

843025214

Karin Bijsterveld, Eefje Cleophas, Stefan Krebs and Gijs Mom

a history of listening behind the wheel

Do you enjoy listening to music while driving? Do you find radio traffic information indispensable? Do you like to sing along with whatever you like as you drive? This book tells the fascinating story of how, over the course of the twentieth century, we turned automobiles from intentionally noisy contraptions into spheres of auditory privacy that make us feel sound and safe. It explains how engineers in the automotive industry found pride in making car engines quieter once they realized that noise stood for inefficiency. And, after the automobile had become a closed vehicle, it follows them as they struggled against sounds audible within the car. The book also traces how noise is linked both to fears - fears of noise-induced fatigue, fears about the danger of the car radio and drivers' attention spans - and to wants, exploring how drivers at one point actually desired to listen to their cars' engines in order to diagnose mechanical problems and how they now appreciate radio traffic information. And it suggests that their disdain for the ever-expanding number of roadside noise barriers made them long for new forms of in-car audio entertainment.--, Provided by Publisher

1. Driving in Control -- Introduction -- Why Acoustic Cocooning and the Sound of Cars? -- Making Sense of Sound -- Sensory Studies, Mobility Culture, and History of Technology -- How We Will Navigate -- New Themes along the Road -- 2. "It Shuts with a Comforting Sound" : Closing the Car Body -- Introduction -- The Rise of the Closed Sedan : Sound Body Building -- Mechanical Silence as Sign of Reliability and Engineering Quality -- Convenient Silence as Ideal for Long-Distance Travelling -- Aristocratic Silence as Mark of Distinction -- An Uplifting and Distancing Experience -- Saving the Cinematic Drive -- Conclusions -- 3. Humming Engines and Moving Radio : Encapsulating the Listening Driver -- Introduction -- Mysterious Noises : The Driver's Experiences -- Listening to the Automobile : The Mechanic's Ear -- The Repair Crisis and the Professionalization of the Car Mechanic -- "A Marriage on its Last Legs" : The Differentiation of Listening Practices -- Decent Radio Reception, As Long as the Car Is Not Moving -- The Car Radio as Mood Regulator -- Conclusions: Car Talk -- 4. "Like a Boxed Calf in a Traffic Drain" : The Car on the Corridor -- Introduction -- The "Only Option" : The Rise of the Roadside Noise Barrier in the Western World -- A New Berlin Wall : The Reception of Noise Barriers in the Netherlands -- Denial Design : Building Green, Transparent and Loss-Compensating Barriers -- A Moving Barrier : The Glocalization of the Noise Barrier -- Nothing to See, Lots to Listen to : Traffic Radio and Audio Books -- Conclusions -- 5. Selling Sound : Sensory Marketing in the Automotive Industry -- Introduction -- Coming to Your Senses, Composing the Sound of Cars -- Leeway for Car Sound Design : Behind the Scenes of International Standardization -- Finding Words for Sound : Lay and Expert Listeners -- Marketing Sound in the Experience Society -- Conclusions -- 6. Sound and Safe : Auditory Privacy and Sonic Relief in the Car -- Introduction -- A History of Listening Behind the Wheel -- Moving, Seeing, Listening, in the Car and in the Past -- The Echo of the Boom Car -- Conclusions: Sensitizing Mobility Culture -- Author Biographies -- Archives, Journals and Interviews