https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i1.015
NOISE AS ARCHIVE: DISRUPTION ACROSS ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL CULTURE
ARUNIMA SURESH
Research Scholar
Department of English, University of Kerala
Abstract: Noise, often dismissed as unwanted interference, functions as a crucial aesthetic and cultural archive that destabilises conventional modes of representation. In analogue cultures, noise emerges through the materiality of media, such as scratched vinyl, warped cassettes, and grainy film stock, where disruption becomes a trace of both use and decay. These sonic and visual ruptures resist seamless transmission, foregrounding memory as fractured, embodied, and precarious. In digital cultures, however, noise takes on new valences: algorithmic glitches, data corruption, and overwhelming verbosity within online platforms. Such disruptions, while seemingly accidental, also expose the fragility of technological systems and the ideological assumptions of algorithmic smoothness. This paper examines the continuities and divergences of noise across analogue and digital domains, situating it as a mode of archival resistance. Drawing on theories from media archaeology, memory studies, and posthumanist thought, it argues that noise not only mirrors the fragmentary nature of trauma and historical rupture but also generates alternative archives that challenge linear progress narratives. Through close readings of experimental texts and films that embrace disruption, alongside analysis of digital glitch aesthetics, the study foregrounds noise as a liminal space where memory, identity, and technology converge. By tracing the persistence of disruption across media shifts, the paper demonstrates how noise articulates a counter-history of culture, one where failure, excess, and fracture become generative forces rather than deficiencies.
Keywords: Noise aesthetics, Analogue media, Digital glitch, Archive theory, Posthumanism, Media archaeology, Cultural memory
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