LISTENING ARTS PROGRAMMES
PHONO-DOC
Two series where we will discover the work of artists who utilize sound recording as a medium for expressing the spatial and socio-political conditions of every day life, exploring the possible capabilities of phonography and listening in catalyzing social reconfigurations.
We will go through the history of audiophonic technologies, and what could be considered important contributions to the evolution of phonography into an art form. You can also expect to hear about critical perspectives on contemporary art production from Latin America and possible strategies to express local, social, historical and political concerns using documentary phonography as the medium.
SERIES ONE
PhonoDoc Ep1 Voices with No Bodies
S1 EP01: VOICES WITH NO BODIES
Early phonography as a handwritten form of documenting spoken word. The desire to preserve the voice of the dead and the invention of the first acoustic recording devices. The ethos of preserving “dying cultures” in early ethnography.
PhonoDoc EP02-But this is not music
S1 EP02: BUT THIS IS NOT MUSIC!
First 20th century creative attempts towards a phonographic art. Incorporating extra-musical sounds in compositions and the manipulation of sound media. Contributions by Russian revolutionary film. Electric recording-reproduction, the magnetic medium and the boom of Hi-Fi.
PhonoDoc - Episode 3 - Daily Sounds Matter
S1 EP03: DAILY SOUNDS MATTER
Pierre Schaeffer's GRM, sound object and Musique Concrète. Mache's contributions to documentary phonography. Who was Halim El Dabh? A pedagogy of the ear and soundscape composition. Portable devices liberate the radio from the enclosure of the studio.
PHONODOC Episode 4 - Documentary Phonographies
S1 EP04: DOCUMENTARY PHONOGRAPHIES
Digital era brings high quality, affordable recording devices expanding the field .The practice of field recording establishes as sub-genre within sound art. New approaches on phonography. Pierre Yves Macé's theoretic contribution to the understanding of documentary phonography.
PHONODOC - Episode 5 - Voices of Nobodies
S1 EP05: VOICES OF THE NOBODIES
Reflections from the global south: critical perspectives from Dussel's philosophy of liberation and by other thinkers considered to be part of the decolonial turn. Freire's radical pedagogy for the production of cultural objects in the contexts of social conflict. Ultra-Red's organized listening.
SERIES TWO
In this second season we will get deeper into aesthetics of liberation and decolonial aesthetics, Argentinean 3rd cinema as a form of cultural and political resistance, social documentary phonography, guerrilla phonography, and the recuperation of oral history and aurality as a medium of exchange information and knowledge. Throughout the series you will hear readings, recordings, conversations and interviews.
S2 EP01 AESTHETICS OF LIBERATION
What are aesthetics of liberation and decolonial aesthetics? South American aesthetic production from a global political stance.
S2 EP03 PHONOGRAPHY AS A SOCIAL DOCUMENT
Phonography is the practice of inscribing sound. It has been used to register spoken word, preserve cultural expressions, to capture soundscapes and to produce sonic objects that could be used to create music, etc. However, phonography is also an art form itself that could both invoke or transform the social and this will be the main point of discussion in this session.
S2 EP02 ARGENTINIAN 3RD CINEMA
Argentinean 3rd cinema: political use of documentary film for social militancy during the 60s and 70s in Argentina. What can we learn from this experience that could be applied in the realm of sonic studies?
S2 EP04 GUERRILLA PHONOGRAPHIES
Capturing sound in the middle of socio-political storms.
S2 EP05 ARCHEOLOGIES OF RESONANCES
Oral history and the necessity of a cultural shifting towads aurality as a practice for transmitting and acquiring knowledge.
JUAN CASTRILLO was born in Jujuy, Argentina. His work explores the role of acoustic cultural objects which may allow the confguration of scenarios for political organizing. In the same line, he investigates the esthetic and political potential of sound recording of cultural expressions and social struggles. He is founder and director of the netlabel Earwitness, and also performs audio production for audiovisual projects. He presented his work at Le Consortium Centre d'Art Contemporain (Dijon, FR), Phonophon (Frankfurt, DE), Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Barcelona, ES), Signal Festival X Edizione (Cagliari, IT), among others.