Noise Diary

Noise Diary presents two essays on sound and community. In “An Extended Listen” the author engages with Toronto’s improvised music scene as a listener. As live music is opening up after the pandemic, the author, struggling with anxiety and depression, goes out to experience the handful of Toronto rooms that house improvised music and its community. He draws from writing on art and music to think through the act of live listening and more fully participate in this especially challenging art form that feels like the edge of music. Alongside these night-time outings is the daily struggle of parenting and a reconstruction of a sense of self in post-pandemic, economically hostile Toronto. The essay incorporates interview material from several of the musicians.

The second essay, “Noise Diary,” juxtaposes the author’s work as a one-on-one writing instructor with the attempt to write and illustrate a children’s book for his son. Through encounters with students, the author indexes present pedagogical pitfalls with personal history (especially his father’s work as an academic). He argues against the nefarious forces of new digital technologies, which silence the noise that helps create community and also erodes community’s context for learning.

Together, the two essays argue for the importance of sound and listening—and noise—in creating our presence with others and in resisting atomizing economic forces.