Professor Gascia Ouzounian launches new book on sound, warfare and urban violence

The book examines how sound and vibration are deployed as instruments of violence in contexts of warfare, occupation, and their aftermaths. Drawing on earwitness testimony, archival research, and studies of sites including Gaza, Beirut, and the Warsaw Ghetto, Ouzounian develops the concepts of vibrational warfare and atmospheric occupation to explore how violence is transmitted through urban environments, buildings, air, and atmospheres. The book also considers how listening can recover obscured histories of violence and become a means of investigation and critique.

Ouzounian explains, ‘I wanted to understand forms of violence that are overlooked because they cannot be seen. Sound and vibration profoundly shape how people experience warfare and occupation, but their effects are rarely accounted for in histories of conflict or studies of cities. The Trembling City asks what we can learn by listening to cities under siege and attack—and in the long aftermaths of war—and how listening might help us recognise forms of violence that are otherwise concealed or denied by states.’

The Wire describes The Trembling City as offering ‘fresh and counterintuitive resources for thinking sound amid contemporary political horror.’ 

Ouzounian’s research has featured at international festivals and symposia including Unsound (Kraków), Earshot: Sonic Investigations (Beirut), Spellbound (Turin), CTM Fest (Berlin), NEXT Festival (Bratislava), and Democracies of Silence (Oslo), contributing to wider public debates about sound, cities, and contemporary conflict.

The launch forms part of The Trembling City: Sound and Spatial Justice, a programme of workshops and public events developed by Ouzounian in collaboration with Ibraaz. Through workshops, listening sessions, and a roundtable, the programme considers how listening might help us imagine new avenues for spatial and urban justice.