Sonic Street Technologies

Sonic Street Technologies (SST) is a European Research Council (ERC) funded research project (2021 – 2025) examining the role and value of bottom up, subaltern and Global South uses of recorded music technologies. Jamaican sound systems, Brazilian aparelhagem, Mexican sonideros and Colombian picos provide good examples of. The project aims to map the distribution and history of these SST worldwide; to investigate the social, economic and cultural conditions from which they are born; and to achieve a deeper understanding of the nature of technology itself and its uses for social and economic progress. SST adopts a practice-as-research methodology as a respect for the knowledge embodied in current sound system and similar street cultures and to help build capacities for their autonomous development.