Culture, media, and science are largely determined by noise. By interference and »noise«, un-intended, nonsensical, and undesired sounds are meant – those which are traditionally the opposite of linguistic and musical sense-making sounds. Even recent research takes this view. However, concentrated interdisciplinary work on listening to sounds of negation, i.e. »un-sounds«, can bring to light previously unknown structures, the analysis potential of which for cultural studies is difficult to exaggerate. The contributions to this volume focus especially on the 20th Century, since the technical capabilities in sound recording have resulted in specific postures.
