What is queer listening? Can sound be queer? Both questions are illogical. Being queer does not completely define how a person hears sound and interprets the worlds that it creates. Sound is also a mechanical force that produces physical vibrations in the ears and renders psychoacoustic phenomena in the minds of listeners. Sound cannot be queer because it is not a person, and as such it has neither sexuality nor gender. But are we satisfied by these answers? Do they really account for the complex ways that queerness resonates through sound across the social constructs of gender and sexuality? Perhaps there is more to say, and more for which to listen.

The upcoming special series of Resonance, “Queer Politics & Positionalities in Sonic Art,” opens discursive space for critical reflection and creative expression on this essay’s opening questions. We don’t intend or desire to answer them definitively. Nor do...

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