An Unquiet Quiet:The History and ‘Smart’ Politics of Sound Masking in the Office

Smart hearing encapsulates a promise of active noise control and focused listening. This chapter historicizes that promise by examining the emergence of sound masking technologies, which use (white) noise for acoustic conditioning of spaces. Since the early 1900s, noise has been considered an irritant that affects listeners’ physical and mental wellbeing and an acute societal problem to be abated by scientific, technological and political means. Yet in the post-war period, a redefinition of noise in informational terms also made it a useful instrument to improve listeners’ focus, well-being and sense of privacy. This chapter examine how this reversal played out in the United States ca. 1970, and particularly in the office environment, which has since long been a key site for developing attention-preserving technologies. It examines the socio-technical networks that make up sound masking to show how particular idealizations of hearing and working become encoded in technology. As such, it is suggested that sound masking offers a useful analogy to critically consider the politics of smart hearing.