The Schizo-Stroller

I will be talking here January 21st 2015 at Housman’s London.

The ASSOCIATION OF MUSICAL MARXISTS present an evening of free improvised music, and discussion of the left’s relation to the current state of “mental health” service provision, including the work of Psychopolitics author Peter Sedgwick, and critique of the hegemonic neo-liberal “Recovery Model.” Speakers: Robert Dellar (author, Splitting in Two: Mad Pride & Punk Rock Oblivion); Alastair Kemp (editor, Newhaven Journal). Entry: £3 redeemable against purchases of books or t-shirts. People with beards will be refused entry.

Facebook event page

There is a belief in the possibility of hearing the voices of the dead in acoustic media: tape, short-wave radio hiss, vinyl etc. called Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP); and then amongst voice hearers there is the experience of hearing what are called acousmatic voices.
An acousmatic sound is a sound where the original source is not known. Tristam Vivian Adams has written a fair bit about them and their use in film, such as Psycho, at the Vocalities blog (part of the Aural and Visual Cultures Department at Goldsmiths). Voice hearers can hear acousmatic voices either where they are disembodied, or embodied but in something alter such as a car tyre screeching, or a fox squealing, music, or even superimposed over someone else’s speech, almost as if a shadow impression.
Electronic Voice Phenomenon seems similar it is hearing ‘messages’ in different media, often accompanied by the belief that they are messages from the dead. Amongst other things I will be exploring any similarities or correlation between the two on this blog over the next couple of years.