Call for Papers – Radical organizing
The Journal of Sonic Studies (JSS) invites proposals for contributions to a special issue addressing radical organizing and sonic practice.
A “radicle” is the first part of a seedling to emerge, the beginnings of new growth. Similarly, radical practices are fundamental. Around the world, people organize sonic art, media, and design in heterodox ways that challenge hegemonies and nurture community. This radical organizing is the focus of this special issue of JSS.
The issue will challenge the status of curator as auteur, recognizing and forwarding the do-it-yourself (DIY), collaborative, and community-based practices that drive both the sonic arts and social movements. From activism to experimental music, radical approaches to organization are pivotal in creating situations for sounding and listening, spaces for encounter and change.
Around the world, organizers create diverse and vibrant situations for listening, from DIY music communities and concert series such as the long running Make It Up Club in Naarm/Melbourne, to online events such as those organized by Philippines based Club Matryoshka on Minecraft, and Ultra-red's activism. Established presenting organizations have often been seeded by grassroots organizers too. For example, Unsound and its sibling Australian festival which was held in Wagga Wagga and organized by a group known as the Wagga Space Program, as well as Liquid Architecture and its beginnings as a festival driven by RMIT University students. Sonic organizing often connects experimental aesthetics with radical politics.
Ultra-red’s “organized listening” (2012) and LifePatch Collective member Andreas Siagian’s “Do It With Others!” (DIWO) philosophy speak to radical approaches to organizing that attend to and mobilize the sonic. As do Frances Dyson’s distinction between the “raucous rabble” that find “voice” in the people’s microphone and the “racket” of capitalism (2014), and Lucia Farinati and Claudia Firth’s efforts to trace the “force of listening” (2017). Bridget Chappell’s “spectacle-rave” (2021) similarly hears raves as situations that disrupt spectacle and its command of desire.
Despite the increased inclusion of sonic practices in contemporary art spaces, sonic creative practice remains fed by the underground, the DIY and the DIWO, organizers who foster and support, and are fostered and supported by, communities of political, ethical, and social listeners. This special issue of JSS will present, theorize, and forward these radical sonic organizational practices.
The editors encourage the inclusion of embedded sonic and other media in submissions. The issue will be edited and formatted to maximize the affordances of browsers, seeking to create a space for listening, reading, and discursive sonic thought.
Proposals may engage with, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Sonic curatorial practices across physical and online spaces
- DIY, DIWO, and community sonic organizing
- Sonic practices in activism
- Organizing as a compositional principle
- Sonic art, media, and design organization engaged with contemporary issues such as ecological urgencies, the pressures of big tech, state power, free speech, and genocide
- Human and more-than-human listeners alike
- Critical and theoretical framing of sonic organizing, including discourse around the aesthetic, ethical, social, political, and beyond
We would particularly welcome proposals for contributions that communicate Global South and/or culturally and linguistically diverse perspectives, as well as those of non-affiliated researchers and curators, those working in and around institutions, and those working in various community contexts.
Please submit full papers and short contributor biographies (100 words) to Ben Byrne – ben.byrne@rmit.edu.au - by March 30, 2026 in your timezone.
Length of paper: In principle any length is allowed, especially when the submission also contains A/V materials. In general, JSS advises authors not to exceed 8,000 words (references and notes included).
Peer and editorial review: All submissions are evaluated through a double-blind peer review by two independent reviewers. The review period typically ranges from six weeks to eight weeks. Reviewer reports are anonymized and returned to authors for revision. Following peer review, articles undergo editorial review. At this stage, members of the editorial team may request further revisions, particularly where submissions do not fully comply with the Submission Guidelines which can be found on the JSS website.