20.03.2025
120 MIN
Spanish

Son[i]a #423
José Luis Espejo

download
timeline
show less/more
00:00
02:09
05:43
15:33
18:38
22:04
28:01
29:56
31:47
35:34
40:02
45:43
51:35
55:10
57:56
60:30
65:05
70:44
77:42
82:43
95:34
104:50
111:57
Albin Mesnel, Édouard Riou, Edward Blyth, Alphonse de Neuville,
Albin Mesnel, Édouard Riou, Edward Blyth, Alphonse de Neuville, "Right Whale", 1870.

José Luis Espejo (Madrid, 1983) is a curator and researcher whose work has for years revolved around the relationship between art and the culture of listening. In his most recent research, Espejo has broadened his scope to encompass media archaeology and materialism in deep time, revealing a complex and uncharted web of relationships. 

Under the generic title Evil is Always Human, Espejo’s explorations invite us to discover unexpected connections between primitive capitalism, the evolution of cetaceans over millions of years, and the physical transformation of their bodies into an energy source.

In this podcast we talk to José Luis Espejo about the unusual progression of his academic immersion, but above all we focus on the key role played by the blubber of toothed cetaceans at different points in recent human history. A descent into the hidden layers of early modernity that connects biology, chemistry, economics, military engineering, and lighting technology. We talk about sperm whales and dolphins, about boats, lamps, and trade treaties, and about the echoes of this history, which resonate in the midst of the current climate crisis. But mostly we talk about blubber, about our relationship with ecosystems, and about the unsustainable exploitation of marine, fossil, and human resources. 

Sound sources:
ermine, “WATRWave_Kimmeridge Bay waves on pebble beach 2018-09-02 9:46
IanFSA, “Sea & Waves Gordons Bay
kevp888, “R4_00677_FR_Waves_on_pebble_beach
newlocknew, “AMBLake_Waves Are Hitting Concrete Blocks.River City Reservoir Pond.Close_EM
tim khan, “seattle bay waves
tim khan, “bay of fundy 03
tim khan, “WATRWave_small waves breaking at deadman’s cove_TK_SASSMKH8020
tim khan, “WATRWave_medium waves breaking at deadman’s cove_TK_SASSMKH8020
tim khan, “mediterranean_sea_porticcio

With the support

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

CONVERSATION: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros, Albert Tarrats, Noela Covelo, and Anna Ramos. SCRIPT AND SOUND PRODUCTION: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros. SOUNDS: Freesound Archive. VOICE OVER: Valeria Brugnoli. Image: Wikipedia.
ATTRIBUTION/NON-COMMERCIAL/SHARE-ALIKE 4.0 INTERNATIONAL (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Son[i]a Climate change coloniality Creative Commons fossil fuels José Luis Espejo L’Internationale light oil whale whaling

related episodes

2 highlights
05.06.2024
85 MIN
English
SON[I]A #403
M Murphy
more

Murphy works with and against technoscience in the areas of environmental justice and data politics, colonialism, sexuality, reproduction and race. Their approach is interdisciplinary not only in the sense of involving various areas of knowledge, but also in enacting their dual responsibility: the almost impossible task of dismantling extractive racial capitalism, by means of re-imagining radical Black, queer, Indigenous and feminist decolonial horizons and worlds of care. In this podcast, Murphy walks us through permission-to-pollute infrastructures in and around Chemical Valley in the Great Lakes area, the largest basin of fresh surface water on the planet.

show more show less
19.07.2023
107 MIN
English
Son[i]a #377
Charmaine Chua
more

In this podcast, Singaporean organizer, writer, and scholar Charmaine Chua shares her research on the containerization of global logistics from the vantage of the Global South. Her journey begins aboard a container ship, embodying ethnographic observation and field work, as well as a radical rereading of the naval archive records of the colonial project. The mix of methodologies, experiences and data highlights the incongruities and the environmental, legal, and labour abuses that appear in the capitalist wet dream of efficiency in global trade.    

show more show less
Son[i]a activism Charmaine Chua Creative Commons degrowth global south infrastructure logistics Re-Imagine Europe Sonic Acts trade unionism
Son[i]a #423 José Luis Espejo
Son[i]a
0:00
0:00
Son[i]a
Son[i]a #384
0:00
Son[i]a #423 José Luis Espejo
Podcast Title

Title of podcast
Son[i]a #384
0:00
34:58