Changing Places, Sensing Times. Listening Beyond The Human

This lecture/workshop series is part of the WITNESS OPEN LAB at SONIC MATTER Festival Zurich.

Available Lectures:


– PRANA

By Sandeep Bhagwati (composer/researcher/writer/matralab director/professor)
Date: Wednesday, May 19th, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m. EST

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Short Description:
Composer Sandeep Bhagwati introduces his piece PRANA which centers on breath, coordination, long harmonies, and the Greek notion of Kairos. PRANA presents itself as an attempt to achieve simultaneity amongst the musicians of the ensemble, and it is in this very attempt that potentialities for the performance of the piece are opened up.
 
Annotated Video Documentation


– Reading Between the Lines

By Deborah Carruthers (multidisciplinary artist/composer)
Date: Wednesday, May 26th, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m. EST

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Short Description:
Multidisciplinary artist Deborah Carruthers shares her work and presents a current project she is working on. With Reading Between the Lines, she engages with solastalgia while investigating three stumps of Sugar Maple trees at the Maison Saint-Gabriel. Intricate network, porosity and interconnectedness are some of the ideas she brings in through her work.
 
Annotated Video Documentation


– A Concert of Four Pieces: “du temps… et de l’espace…”

By Terri Hron (composer / recorder player / writer / musician / performer / multimedia artist / executive director of the Canadian New Music Network)
Date: Tuesday, June 1st, 2021
Time: 09:00 a.m. EST

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Short Description:
Musician and composer Terri Hron presents past projects she has worked on, along with her interest in revisiting scoring practices that go beyond the eurological tradition. In her current project, she investigates the parasitic relationship between Emerald Ash Borers and Ash trees, which brings into play different time scales and relationships amongst human and more-than-human entities.
 
Annotated Video Documentation


– BEING GEOLOGICALLY HUMAN

By Marcia Bjornerud (geologist/Book: “Timefulness”) & David Wood (artist/philosopher/Book: “Deep Time, Dark Times: On Being Geologically Human”)
Date: Tuesday, June 8th, 2021
Time: 09:00 a.m. EST

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Short Description:
Geologist Marcia Bjornerud presents her concept of timefulness as both an awareness of the natural history that envelops us and an involvement with the temporalities of natural history. David Wood, philosopher, introduces temporal phronesis, as the ability to recognize and deploy a wide range of temporal shapes and figures, which are helpful in attending to the speed of change, so crucial in the Anthropocene.
 
Annotated Video Documentation


– SINGING TO PLANTS

By Rupert Huber (composer/musician/shaman/choir conductor)
Date: Tuesday, June 15th, 2021
Time: 09:00 a.m. EST

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Short Description:
Austrian composer and conductor, Rupert Huber, shares the coming of his method for singing to plants. Being mindful of the confluence of both the plant temporality and human temporality, Huber presents two techniques: resonance singing and contact singing. He stresses the pitfalls of objectification or of reification when it comes to singing to plants.
 
Annotated Video Documentation


– FOREST THINKING

By Eduardo Kohn (anthropologist/professor/Book: “How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human”)
Date: Wednesday, June 16th, 2021
Time: 09:00 a.m. EST

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Short Description:
Anthropology Professor, Eduardo Kohn, presents his work in the Amazonian forest. Through his book How Forests Think he elaborates on what it means to live in a world called forest, and on the centrality of sound in that regard. Kohn also presents his understanding of one of his more recent concepts, that of the ‘vital song of the earth.’
 
Annotated Video Documentation


– SONIFICATION

By Florian Grond (sonification artist/interaction designer/researcher)
Date: Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021
Time: 09:00 a.m. EST

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Short Description:
Interaction designer and research associate, Florian Grond, presents a retrospective of his works. From his interest in formal and mathematical structures, to a deep dive into sonified interactions, Grond brings to the fore questions of reification, accessibility and translation, with a strong focus on disability studies and disability arts.
 
Annotated Video Documentation


– DISPATCH

By Candice Hopkins (Native Canadian Curator) & Raven Chacon (Native American Artist/Composer/Performer)
Date: Wednesday, June 30th, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m. EST

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Short Description:
Native Canadian Curator Candice Hopkins and Native American Artist Raven Chacon present their work and more specifically a score they co-created. Both engage in decolonial practices of listening, seeking to answer questions such as: What is the call of the land? What does the land need? What does it mean to truly listen to the land?
 
Annotated Video Documentation



– RESONANCE

By Hartmut Rosa (sociologist/philosopher/Book: “Resonance: A Sociology of our Relationship to the World”)
Date: Wednesday, July 21st, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m. EST

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Short Description:
Hartmut Rosa, German sociologist, presents his work and he focuses on the notions of speed, alineation, uncontrollability, and social energy, but most importantly, on his concept of resonance.
Annotated Video Documentation


– PODCAST

By Sandeep Bhagwati (composer/researcher/writer/matralab director/professor) & Matthias Fritsch (philosopher/professor/Concordia University)
Date: Friday, July 23rd, 2021

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Short Description:
This podcast with Sandeep Bhagwati and Matthias Fritsch touches upon the notions of temporalities in the anthropocene. While Fritsch approaches these through time and justice, Bhagwati does so through polyphonic music. Both discuss deep listening practices as being crucial in times of environmental destabilization.
 
Annotated Video Documentation

 

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*** matralab Focus Month – Contributions to Sonic Matter Openlab ***

– Reading Between the Lines

By Deborah Carruthers (Multidisciplinary Artist/Composer)

– Exploring With Resonances and Sounds in Different Spaces

By Jen Reimer (Sound Artist/Musician/Matralab Coordinator)

– Nesting

By Terri Hron (Composer / Recorder Player / Writer / Musician / Performer / Multimedia Artist / Executive Director of the Canadian New Music Network)

– Toposition(s)

By Charles-Antoine Fréchette (Composer/Musician/Researcher)