Noise and meaning : a cognitive ethnography of San Diego musicians

A genre label of 'Noise Music' or 'Noise' has emerged over the last two decades and become an increasingly common descriptor for artists working at the fringes of various forms of rock and popular music. Yet in theorizing noise (in the theoretical sense) and Noise (a genre and culture), discourse has often been limited to those artists with strong ties to the Western Avant-Garde and its institutions, or at the very least, those who profess creative indebtedness to that tradition. Though this is true of many prominent Noise musicians, this framing can exclude or marginalize many of the rich details that constitute the aesthetic and personal identities of Noise culture. This paper will address the gap between existing academic Noise discourse and the experiences of musicians living in San Diego whose music, at times, may be considered Noise. Through interviews and observations of performances, I will provide an ethnographic account of these musicians, their work, and their communities as a means of grounding discussion in lived experience. After locating these musicians and their work within various cultural and aesthetic topographies, I will use observations about their creative practices and their descriptions thereof to theorize the significance of physical materials in meaning-making processe