Carmen Pardo, author of En el silencio de la cultura, is a lecturer at the University of Girona and teaches on Barcelona University’s Sound Art Master’s programme. A specialist in contemporary music and author of a major study of John Cage (La escucha oblicua: Una invitación a John Cage), Pardo’s book is about the complex development of Western culture throughout the 20^th century, directly linked to the aestheticisation of socio-political contexts.