Abstract vorticism—mode of rhythmanalytic thought that derives from Lucretius’s concept of the clinamen, and continued in the ideas of Illya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers, Michel Serres on the birth of physics, and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of the war machine. Abstract vorticism concerns itself with populations “far from equilibrium,” turbulence, and the emergence of rhythm out of noise.
Acoustic cyberspace—denned by Erik Davis as a synthetic, affective, immersive, synesthetic, haptic space as opposed to the disembodied, Cartesian, visual model of digital space segmented by grids, lines, and points.
Acoustics—the physics of sound.
Actual occasions—the basic atoms of experience, as denned by Alfred Whitehead. Also referred to as a throb or pulse of experience.
Affect—Spinozist conception of the power of one body to interact with other bodies. The ontological glue of the universe. In its narrower definition, it diverges from psychoanalytical definitions that use it as synonymous with emotion, instead denoting collective dynamics in relation to mood, ambience, and atmosphere as registered across networked nervous systems. Theoretically denotes a plane ontologically prior to cognitive processes and the plane of representation. Concept developed further by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and by Brian Massumi.
Affective tonality—dimensions of mood, ambience, or atmosphere.
Afrofuturism—the intersection of black music with black science fiction. Generally understood as originating with Sun Ra in jazz, George Clinton in funk, and Lee Scratch Perry in reggae. Chronicled by the Black Audio Film Collective in The Last Angel of History/Mothership Connection and Kodwo Eshun in More Brilliant Than the Sun.
Analog fetishism—adherence and prioritization of an ontology of continuity and flow. In sound, the fetishization of analog machines and sonics as truly authentic. Working together with digital futurism, constitutes a block to a rigorous conception of the sonic plexus.
Asymmetric warfare—conflict waged between two forces of radically unequal means. Refers to a range of tactics and strategies that take advantage of decentralized, rhizomatic networks. Resonates with strategies of guerrilla warfare and contemporary netwar.
Audio virology—theory and practice of cultural virology operating at the level of affective contagion, as opposed to the cognitive epidemiology of memetics.
Bass materialism—the collective construction of vibrational ecologies concentrated on low frequencies where sound overlaps tactility
DéJà entendu —the weird experience of time anomaly, specifically the auditory equivalent of déjà vu, that is, the already heard, as opposed to the already seen.
Digital futurism—reductionist, fetishism of digital technology, or formalist, avant-gardist tendency in digital sound design and microsound theory and practice. Working together with analog fetishism, constitutes a block to a rigorous conception of the sonic plexus.
Ecology of fear—phrase coined by urban theorist Mike Davis to depict the affective climate of catastrophic urbanism, the city and its control systems as affected by the threat of natural, technological, sociopolitical, or economic disaster.
Futurism—the legacy of aesthetico-technical engagement deriving from the early modernist Italian art movement, for example, Marinetti, and characterized by an obsession with war, machines, speed, noise, and sensation and a naively linear conception of technological evolution. Noted in the history of experimental music for Rusollo’s groundbreaking manifesto, The Art of Noise.
Futurity—immanence of the future in the present marked by anticipation or dread as a future feedback effect. The domain of preemptive control.
Global ghettotech—attempt to forge together a radically synthetic counter to “world music” that connects together the mutant strains of post-hip-hop, electronic dance music from the Planet of Slums, from kwaito to reggaeton, to cumbia, to dancehall, to crunk, to grime, to baile funk, and others.
Hard-core continuum—defined by journalist Simon Reynolds as a lineage of music in the U.K. that emerged out of the collision with acid house with the sonic processes of Jamaican sound system culture. The continuum stretches through strains of hard core, through jungle, drum’n’bass, 2step garage, grime, dubstep, bassline, and funky house.
Holosonic control—the convergence of direction ultrasound technologies with preemptive power for audio virological objectives. Produces the effect of déjà entendu, among others.
Hypersonic—inaudible affects of an ultrasonic encounter.
Infrasound—leaky, subbass frequencies under the auditory threshold of 20 hertz, often felt in terms of tactility or organ resonance instead of hearing.
Logistics of affection—distributed continuum of war machines (as opposed to military machines) generative of the mutation of sensation in cybernetic society. In an asymmetric relation to the logistics of perception.
Logistics of perception—phrase coined by Paul Virilio in relation to the control functions of militarized media culture in cybernetic society. In an asymmetric relation to the logistics of affection.
Megalopolis—multicentered urban sprawls ranging from 8 million to 30 million inhabitants. Key actors in the evolution of the human species in the twenty-first century.
Military-entertainment complex—The idea that target populations in wartime are also media audiences. Also refers to the migration of technologies and processes developed in the military sphere to everyday media culture.
Military urbanism—the migration of the architectures of security from war to the design of cities.
Nexus—a collective or society of actual entities that prehend each other, as denned by Alfred Whitehead. The nexus itself constitutes an actual entity in addition to the sum of entities out of which it is composed.
Planet of Slums—name for emergent, megalopian, and radically unequal urbanism of the twenty-first century (Mike Davis).
Preemptive power—a speculative, postdeterrence mode of power that attempts to colonize futurity by appropriating the future-anterior. Attempts to operate in advance of itself. Instead of attempting to ward off, prevent, or anticipate future events, preemptive power attempts to add a minimal dose of surety into an uncertain present, narrowing the window of the future by instigating threatened events, making them actualize, even if undesirable in the short term. Also known as science-fiction capital (Mark Fisher).
Prehension—a simple feeling, sensuous or nonsensuous (conceptual), as defined by Alfred Whitehead.
Rhythmachine—defined by Kodwo Eshun as the abstract machine of rhythm, connecting smaller information components perceivable only nonsensuously through pattern recognition. A parallel processing system enhanced by sonic science, with a potential to reverse-engineer what a body can do. Reaches its hyperhythmic apex in the futurhyth-machine of U.K. dance music, jungle.
Rhythmanalysis—philosophy of rhythm as developed by Pinheros dos Santos, Gaston Bachelard, and Henri Lefebvre.
Rhythmic anarchitecture—the extensive continuum of Alfred Whitehead, or the nexus of all nexus. That which gives continuity to the atomic nature of actual occasions, the break and flows of matter.
Sonic plexus—the folded relationship between analog and digital sound culture.
Sonic warfare—deployment of sound systems in the modulation of affect, from sensations to moods to movement behaviors.
Subpolitics of frequency—the micropolitics of vibration that challenges the pervasive discrimination against low-end frequencies. Also refers to the apolitical or subpolitical, tactical nature of such a micropolitics, and therefore its possible appropriation by both active and reactive forces.
Throb of experience—a basic aesthetic component of actuality for Alfred North Whitehead.
Ultrasound—directional, high-frequency vibrations above the auditory threshold of 20 kilohertz.
Unsound—the not yet audible. Refers to the fuzzy periphery of auditory perception, where sound is inaudible but still produces neuroaffects or physiological resonances. Refers also to the untapped potential of audible bandwidths and the immanent futurity of music. Sonic virtuality.
Virtuality—concept of potentiality as developed by Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Levy, and Brian Massumi.
War machine—technical concept of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari referring to a range of collective phenomena engaged in the active decoding and deterritorialization of strata. Can be conceptual, sonic, aesthetic, economic, political, animal, and so forth. When contrasted to military machines, war machines are differentiated by not taking conflict or violence as their primary object.