The Role of Sound in Recognizing the Slow Violence of Carbon Extraction

By Steve Lemeshko

Open-pit coal mine, similar to the one in Nástup–Tušimice. Credit: Pixabay.

Human use of carbon has been the norm since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. However, its impact—exemplified in today's climate change—is too slow for us to notice. Slow violence is fundamental to how we experience and think about the ecological crisis, posing a challenge for how we should identify the subtle yet pervasive effects of anthropogenic damage. The Czech Future Landscapes initiative can give us a glimpse into how sound can help us break our carbon-addicted pattern of thinking.

The first episode of the Future Landscapes podcast, “Fossil Injustice: Tušimice coal power plant, Czech Republic,” examines the slow violence of the Tušimice coal power plant. Located far away in the countryside, its violent impact is largely hidden. Collaborating on the project, philosopher of technology Lukáš Likavčan, musicians Václav Havelka and Pan Thorarensen, and audio field recorders Sara Pinheiro and Magnús Bergsson embark on a sonic expedition to provide us with a new perspective on a modern world. Together, they try to answer the question of how we can see the changes through sound to reshape our beliefs.

Sounds have the potential to offer us another dimension for perceiving slow, almost imperceptible changes. It brings these changes closer to us, showing the difference between the loud, monotonous sounds of coal extraction and natural, dynamic processes. Sound makes slow violence more tangible by letting us hear the true impact of human infrastructure. The sound not only affects our immediate environment but also shapes our collective imagination; it is tied to politics and our future. In this equation, sound equals power, and power equals politics.

While the podcast is the final product of the sonic expedition, the website offers additional depth for the readers. The Future Landscapes project divides the webpage for this episode, which is also available in English, into distinct sections:

• “About”—a background story of the Tušimice coal power plant;

• “Podcast”—the main product of the sound expedition;

• “Sound archive”—a collection of audio recordings from the coal power plant;

• “Field notes”—an engaging collection of thoughts from the field; and

• “Rituals”—an alternative perspective on understanding coal injustice through personal experiences and senses.

Together, these different dimensions provide an innovative communication strategy to disrupt the carbon violence cycle. While no single medium can convey all necessary information, the combination of these mental exercises can give the readers a fresh and nuanced perception of the largely overlooked but deadly violence at play.