Silence is rare. It can be in turns transcendent, transgressive, transporting, and terrifying. Throughout history silence has served as a technology of war and a means of resistance, a means of torture and a therapeutic practice. Quiet environments have served as novel experiences, places of rest and retreat, and ‘otherworldly laboratories’.  Inspired by the passionate belief that “silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything,” acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton has devoted his life to locating and conserving that gravely endangered sensorial experience of quietude. In contrast, after an uncanny experience in ‘Beranek’s Box’, or anechoic chamber at Harvard University, artist John Cage emerged with the firm belief that there was no such thing as true silence. These silent laboratories are rooms designed to stop the reflection of sound or magnetic waves– anechoic literally meaning free from echo. Where silence can inspire a sense of ill ease, even dread, it can also be a wildly imaginative space of potential in which dreaming, reflection, and creativity thrive. 

Tracing the lineages both technological and cultural this panel invites applications that explore the past, present and future of silencing technologies, the transfers and transformations of knowledge regarding silence, and the ways in which these technologies have and continue to shape society. Applicants are particularly encouraged to explore how bounded environments, defined by technologies of control, inspired a spirit of avant-garde improvisation that would redefine silence as a medium for art, science, and transcendence. In addition we would welcome pieces which examine or reflect on the generative nature of silence, in helping us to consider what is missing, rendered unspeakable, unthinkable, unimaginable. This paper offers reflections, speculative responses, exploring technologies of silence throughout history and into the future.