Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale (2019) 27, 1 50–61. © 2019 European Association of Social Anthropologists. doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12595 50 Special Section Article THORSTEN GIESER Sensing and knowing noises: an acoustemology of the chainsaw Within sensory anthropology, scholars have for some time now developed ways to think with acoustic phenomena and to interpret the multiple meanings of sounds and soundscapes. Yet actual practices of listening and experiences of listening subjects fea- ture rather less in that field. Drawing on a case study of chainsaw use in tree felling, this article presents listening as a mode of acoustic knowing that is both aesthetic and epistemological. This is achieved by combining a consideration of listening as a skilled practice with a problematisation of the notion of ‘noise’. Whereas noise is commonly conceived of as unwanted, chaotic and meaningless sound, skilled chainsaw use shows how a particular practice re-evaluates what is defined as noise and even takes it as an entry to acoustic knowing. Through a careful description and analysis of the process of tree felling, this article traces how skilfully mediated listening with the chainsaw develops from a felt, embodied sense of a sound world that is still indeterminate and ambiguous to recognisable ‘objects’ of clearly identifiable sounds. It is argued that through such a broader conceptualisation of listening as a form of sensing, we can more deeply investigate the sonic orders of sociocultural practices. Key words  aesthetics, listening, noise, skill, sound Introduction The sound of the chainsaw is a visceral sound that seems to drive deeply into our bones. With a loudness of around 110 dB (challenging helicopters and jackhammers), it is often considered prototypical ‘noise’. Its peculiar dissonant sound signature makes the chainsaw a favourite for horror movies and – through this association – for Death Metal and Thrash Metal songs where it is used as background sound or even as an alternative musical instrument (e.g. in the work of Jackyl or The Lumberjacks). The noise of the chainsaw could be said to have the power to cut right through and dis- turb the aesthetics of everyday life ‘soundscapes’ (see Kelman 2010; also Helmreich 2010; Ingold 2011: 136–40). As an acoustic phenomenon, it displays ‘acoustic violence’ (Bosshard 2005; Goodman 2010) – both through its noise and the brute materiality of its cutting force. Yet alternatively, noise may be considered as a route to investigating the effects of technologisation in regard to sound and listening practices, in particular to noise as produced by machines (Bijsterveld 2008; Cox 2013). However, instead of constru- ing noise primarily as a (public) ‘noise problem’ (Bijsterveld 2008), I am interested