Listening to Tehran: Sonic Palimpsests and Affective Historical Imaginaries

Through the more-than-sounds of sirens, bombs and other sonic experiences during the missile strikes on Tehran in the later stages of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) in Azar Nafisi’s 2003 book, Laudan Nooshin will investigate a profound entanglement of sound, affect, and memory, and the intense somatic materiality of sound experienced through the entire body. Nooshin will draw on current research on the sound of Tehran to explore the entanglement and in particular the palimpsestic nature of historical soundspaces with their layered sonic archaeology.