Son[i]a #346
Jessica Ekomane

We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with poet, activist, sound artist, sound sculptor and curator Antye Greie. We unpack some of her strategies to deploy what she calls "feminist sonic technologies". And we do so, starting with her own understanding of unlearning.

Artist, composer and researcher Edwin van der Heide expands musical composition and musical language in spatial, interactive, and interdisciplinary directions. His often site-specific, highly immersive installations don’t just take up space: they are a very deliberate inquiry into space itself and into its affordances as an artistic medium and material. Edwin’s pieces create space, modifying its actual and perceived boundaries. They make space present, apparent, and even tangible. In this podcast, we talk to Edwin about art in public space, air pressure, sounds under water, loudspeakers, networks, odd spatial experiences, and sonic phenomenology.

We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with sound artist and musician Jessica Ekomane. We talk about sci-fi and emancipatory spaces, her VR project, her approach to live shows and her collaborations.

Roc Jiménez de Cisneros talks about EVOL’s very free deconstruction and reinterpretation of György Ligeti's 'Continuum' and Hanne Darboven’s 'Opus 17A', and how these works relate to the duo's current artistic practice. Unusual notions of time in relation to music, algorithmic reverse engineering, complexity through simplicity, anti-climax, ancient trance music, weird mental states and Dick Higgins’ Superboredom concept pop up in the conversation.

DeForrest Brown’s work includes music released under the moniker Speaker Music, but largely revolves around research and writing. He looks back at the complex roots of black American culture and at phenomena like techno, in order to expose this systematic obliteration. And above all, to draw attention to the neglected creativity of its pioneers and the rich sonic universe they created from the rubble of a crumbling Detroit. Against the tide of the prevailing narrative, Brown’s work seeks to contextualize these episodes by highlighting key economic and political factors of the time, intertwined with personal anecdotes and a sincere love for the music.  We talk to Deforrest Brown about Detroit veterans, broken futures, Reaganomics, screams, government sanctioned murder, and Disco Demolition in the post-truth era.

Quinsy Gario talks about the role of the activism in the Netherlands today, and about the relation between its performative nature and the boundaries of the museum.

Interview with Natascha Sadr Haghighian about the '# 04 Natascha Sadr Haghighian. De paso' exhibition.