What can music, noise, and sound teach us about the fundamental ways we make sense of the world? This question is at the heart of Stephen Kennedy's intriguing book Compression Mode. For Kennedy, 'compression' is not simply a technical operation characteristic of digital media but a process evident in all the ways we represent or comprehend the world: language, mathematics, cartography, musical notation and more. Compression, then, becomes a metaphysical and epistemological concept with which Kennedy engages key debates in contemporary philosophy and aesthetics.

Christoph Cox, Executive Dean, Eugene Lang College, The New School, USA

For years literature on sound has lacked the specificity and precision afforded to visual culture. Compression Mode by Stephen Kennedy takes on this challenge and answers this call.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Founder and Director of Earshot.ngo

Compression Mode explores the unruly nature of sound and noise, unearthing the treasures lost in our compressed digital worlds where the signal takes precedence. Kennedy takes us on an exhilarating ride, conjuring the spectral, the hidden and the unthought - a journey that questions our relationships with the sensual and digital worlds as they collide and coalesce.

Jane Grant, Associate Professor in Digital Arts, University of Plymouth, UK