Join us online for a talk by Infrasonica, a digital platform of non-Western cultures. They record, analyse and debate the eeriness of sound and its auras, linked to the world with the audible, the hidden and the sensitive.
The platform includes archives of experimental sound and visual artists, as well as theoretical musings on contemporary critical thought. By relying on a borderless network of collaborators, Infrasonica blends essays, conversations and speculative works that encourage critical curatorial and research projects.
Infrasonica has been exploring voicing practices that distance themselves from the politics of representation. They articulate spaces where indigenous silences, the poetic nature of sound, and the ritualistic dimension of language create room for a unique self—one not mediated by the state or the taxonomy of liberal politics, which often operate within the framework of identity and citizenship. These political structures tend to view voicing as representation, forming the foundation of representative democracy.
In this online talk hosted by esea contemporary, Infrasonica will discuss their understanding of the limits between voice, song, language, and abstraction while examining how voice as representation has been distorted in liberal democracies to flatten cultural differences and polyphonies, with aid from the work of authors and artists including Lawrence Lek 陆明龙, Yu'an Huang, InnerSwell, Nadoe, and Rouzbeh Shadpey.
By engaging with the idea of 'Voicing Abstraction', Infrasonica challenges the inherent contradiction in combining these two words. Learning from the legacy of indigenous art, abstraction is much more than the refusal of representation, as opposed to Western modernity; it's the articulation of meaning at the service of a specific community, used as a strategy to safeguard non-colonial memory. Abstraction, in this case, is not unintelligible but enigmatically literal.
'Voicing Abstraction' aims to confront and explore the potentialities inherent in the poetics of spoken language: is it possible to name a shapeless thing? How can we address something beyond communication? Can we breathe life into that which has no concreteness?
If you have any special access needs, please let us know in advance.
Tracklist
KUA: Transnationalisms by Yu'an Huang
Black Cloud by Lawrence Lek 陆明龙
pLayPlAyplAY by InnerSwell
Come Hell or High Water by Nadoe
Toward the Shore of Listening: An Underscore by Rouzbeh Shadpey
Infrasonica is a digital platform of non-Western cultures. We record, analyse and debate the eeriness of sound and its auras, linked to the world with the audible, the hidden and the sensitive. Infrasonic waves operate at a frequency that is undetectable by human ears even though they are often generated by massive ecological phenomena, such as the movement of tectonic plates or the deep currents of the ocean. Infrasonica aims to be a catalyst for those vibrations. The platform includes archives of experimental sound and visual artists, as well as theoretical musings on contemporary critical thought. By relying on a borderless network of collaborators, Infrasonica blends essays, conversations and speculative works that encourage critical curatorial and research projects.
‘Publishing Otherwise: A Slow Book Fair for Coexistence’ is a reimagination of the book fair model, offering an alternative approach that diverges from the pressure of high-functioning, profit-driven transactions and embraces a slower, more intentional form of exchange.
Taking place at esea contemporary's Communal Project Space, the programme brings together two months of free talks, book launches, displays, and workshops led by collaborators from a diverse range of collectives, disciplines, and practises.
