In a nice serendipity, my time in France allowed me to participate in the Audioblast festival in Nantes that is run by the valiant APO-33 —a small and dedicated organisation led by Julien Ottavi and Jenny Pickett who have been “doing it with others” and keeping Nantes noisy and hackivist for over a decade.
«Resonant Futurs» exhibition
The theme of the festival was Resonant Futures and I was invited to exhibit at Plateforme Intermédia along with Ali Hossaini and Solar Return (Ottavi & Pickett). The festival theme allowed me to revisit my Sounding the Future Project, which was birthed in France during a residency at Bandits-Mages/La Box ENSA, Bourges in 2014, just shy of a decade ago.
I decided to redevelop one of the speculative fictional scenarios that had survived the passage of time called Stasis Shift. In this scenario, the over population and technologisation of the world has lead to a dangerous overload of vibration. As a consequence all extraneous vibration producing activities, of which sound for leisure is one, are banned. To feel the vibrations of sound, to dance to music is thus a deeply subversive and rebellious activity.
In this new manifestation, the participant sits on a stool in the midst of a downward projection. They listen to the scenario through bone conduction headphones that sit just before the ears on the cheekbone, bipassing the vibratory system of ear drum and ossicles, to stimulate the inner ear directly. As the scenario develops and the perversions of listening to sound out loud are indulged in, a tactile speaker that is underneath he stool activates, and sound begins to emerge from near field monitors.
Technically, I was interested in how the different types of speaker delivery can actually add affective and semantic meaning to the scenario, and how I could use the 5.1 system to deliver a packaged multichannel audio visual piece.
«Resonant Futurs» Colloquium
The festival was focused around a one-day colloquium followed by a morning round table. I delivered a presentation called “Returning to My Futures” that focused on the role of speculation in my practice both as content within the Sounding the Future project but also as a strategy to dream larger ideas. I also touched on the mechanisms science fiction in particular its encouragement of cognitive estrangement via the novum, ideas put forward by Darko Suvin (“The Poetics of Science Fiction”, 1972).
APO-33 have been leaders in the streaming game having had a streaming music festival from way before it was contingently used during the pandemic, and so the entire proceedings can be watch in realtime or now (whenever now is for you). Other excellent contributors and idea generators included: Don Foresta (MaP), Helen Varley Jameson (Upstage), Ali Hossaini (IEA), Laurent Lescop (AAU-CRENAU), Jean-Marie Dallet (Slider Lab), Nicolas Kisic Aguirre (DX Arts), Marinos Koutsomichalis (Madlab), Lucas Seguy and the irrepressible Shu Lea Cheang.
Here is my contribution.
The following day we all joined in a round table to explore how art and technology can help shape better futures. We tussled politely over the history and role of mathematics in systematising the world for good and evil; the deterministic (or not) role of technology; what came first – the patriarchy or progress economics (capitalism); the artificial boundaries of nature and technology where I found myself citing Nietzsche (who even am I); and ways of listening to move forward. It can be seen in full here.
«Resonant Futurs» Perfomance
And then it was all topped off with performances that were also streamed. I had the honour of closing the evening and the festival with a few little experimental beats.
Performances by:
Gail Priest (Australie) – Live radio et perfomances électronique
Dafna Naphtali (USA) – voix et numérique performance AV
Nicolas Kisic Aguirre (USA) – manipulation détourné de machines
Antoine Schmitt et Hortense Gauthier (FR) – corps, live electronics et mapping physique
Helen Varley Jamieson et Eva Ursprung (NZ/A) – transmission, cyberperformance et live electronics
Marinos Koutsomichalis et RadioNoiseCollective (GR/FR) – instruments radio DIY et bidouilles du quotidien
Thanks
Huge thanks to Julien, Jenny, Amandine, Jean, Prune and the rest of the APO-33 team for inviting me and for a such great hospitality.
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