In Hush, Mack Hagood traces the modern history of noise-producing devices that are used to combat unwanted noise. Hagood places a chapter on tinnitus at the beginning of the book to establish a listening praxis that is active—the internally produced sound of tinnitus tends to intensify or wane depending on one's external soundscape—then lays out a narrative of technological developments that use sound to mask or cancel out undesirable sound. This framing draws the reader's attention to modes of listening that position the body in an affective relationship both with its surroundings and with the media that either convey or block out the vibrations of those surroundings. At root in Hagood's project are questions about freedom and control: who is free to hear the sounds they want? Who can control their environment? Who's to say which sounds are desirable and which aren't? Hush offers an intriguing set of case...

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