Son[i]a #278
Jean-Luc Nancy
This conversation is in French. It is part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Music commissioned to François J. Bonnet. Interview and editing by Arnau Horta. Produced by Roc Jiménez de Cisneros
Jean-Luc Nancy (b. Bordeaux, 1940) has written about identity, religion, community, artistic creation, and the act of philosophising itself. Many of his texts, most of which enter into close dialogue with the work of other thinkers such as Derrida, Lacan, Bataille, Heidegger, and Hegel, also include frequent references to the body, its status as a cultural and historical construct, its “indices”, its limits, and its potentialities.
In his 2002 book “À l’écoute” (Listening), Nancy returned to the question of the body, this time exploring it in parallel with the experience of sound. These ideas led him to examine the relationship between the acts of listening and philosophising, the anti-phenomenological nature of sound events, and the notion of the subject – another recurring theme that is constantly scrutinised in his work.
In this podcast, Jean-Luc Nancy goes back to these and other questions addressed in the pages of “À l’écoute”, a book that is both controversial and oft quoted in the broad field of contemporary sound and listening studies. We talk about the body as an echo chamber and as a sensible and sentient presence, about silence as the “infinite extremity of sound”, and the role of sound and listening in the context of political practice.
Alma Söderberg
Alma Söderberg is a choreographer and performer who works with music and dance. As well as exploring close listening, Alma listens to rhythm and movement, in order to inhabit polyrythm and "simultaneous difference", to quote Eric Davis by way of Alma. In this podcast, Alma tells us about the many musical influences that inspire her choreographic practice: jazz, flamenco, hip hop, and experimental and Afro-American music. She also talks about multiplicity, reduced listening and deep listening, about letting rhythm run through you, about the voice, sharing, idiorhythms, Anni Albers, weaving, learning to wait, and about playing.
Alvin Lucier
In loving memory of Alvin Lucier (1931-2021), we dig up a conversation with Alvin, one of the most amazing composers and sound artists we've seen, in which he talks about the need to listen carefully, the composers that have accompanied and influenced him over the years, and the role of space and technology in his work, among many other things. One of a kind.
Thinking (through) the ear
Can we think through listening? Seth-Kim Cohen, Christoph Cox, Julian Henriques, Casey O’Callaghan, Peter Szendy and Salomé Voegelin discuss why thinking should not be at odds with resonating...