Luc Marraffa (they/them) is a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (University of Amsterdam). They research French and Dutch colonial radio archives and develop transcription methods that challenge colonial narratives. Their current work interrogates the queerness of glitches and sound parasites. Previously they taught philosophy at CUNY and attended NYU as Fulbright bursar, after a philosophy MA at Paris VIII Vincennes/Saint-Denis. At the UvA, they teach classes in sound studies and decolonial approaches to archiving.
Authors | Luc Marraffa
Articles on Amodern by Luc Marraffa
TRANSCRIPTION AS CURATION
Encountering Sonic Traces of Emotion in Archived Colonial Radio Programs
In my work on French and Dutch colonial radio archives (1945-1950), I use written transcriptions to attune my readers to sounds which exceed speech. I argue that transcribing recorded speech into text is not a neutral act; it is a curatorial gesture which defines what signals are recognized as sound, and which are cast out as mere noise. By documenting non-verbal cues in recordings, I render people’s emotions visible in the transcriptions. Building on Annette Hoffman’s concept of close listening, I discuss how adding layers of meaning to the recorded speech can be a modality of care. I argue that care, in the context of discourses normalising colonialism, may entail withholding empathy and decentring the intended message of the speaker by ignoring the semantic elements of the signal and focusing instead on the material qualities of their speech.