Journal

Pre Lecture Response

“Berlin-based musician, researcher and educator,” Shanti Suki Osman translates activism through sound. Her work heavily revolves around creating a space for young coloured women to explore their identity, history and collective trajectory through the medium of audio. Projects that raise questions grounded in the past, but aimed for the future, emphasising the power that the mere practice of listening, sound recordings and stories of everyday life have as vessels that carry ideas of change, empowerment and social awareness. It seems as if her overall aim is to bring light to those who have been ethnically marginalised and to help give back the reigns to their livelihoods.
Her involvement in Late Nights In Squat Bars, a feminist electro pop duo was the beginning of an unplanned route into sound art. Through her work she addresses issues concerning “identities, privilege, cultural commodification and appropriation, feminisms, (post)colonial criticisms and activism.”

Curated by Shanti, a radio series called Hidden Stories eloquently portrays these themes through music, post colonial narratives and untold tales of cultural heritage. Much like Yassmin V. Fosters work, it sheds light on otherwise disregarded processes behind historically rich music, tackling matters of misrepresentation.

A sound piece by Shanti, Perfect fit, combines disjointed sounds with layered voices. A conversation that she seems to be having with herself, but one the listener can engage in too. A stream of consiousness that touches on marginalised perspectives. Broken-up tidbits of valuable musings on society, reinforced in memory by the surrounding synths and metallic sounds. All supposedly bringing attention to voices in unwanted spaces.

In an interview regarding ‘Perfect Fit’ Shanti recalls situations in which she was the subject of racial stereotyping and expands on the normalisation of it. Something I can definitely relate to as a second generation immigrant. The policing of our emotions in order to fit in with the prevailing cultural conditions. Though concurrently she advocates listening as a practice, against a sea of voices and opinions that can overwhelm a given topic. ‘Whose voice is being heard and whose isn’t’ she says as a way of underlining the importance of the need to create spaces for non dominant narratives. But surely, her work, emotionally driven by her own lived experiences contradicts this and begs the question: Is she personally biased and does that take away from the credibility of her work? In the sense that it becomes less of a canvas for self realised conclusions, and instead an imposition of ideals based on her lived experiences. A quote from ‘Perfect fit’ comes to mind as I ponder these implications: “can we criticise each other without causing each other pain”

Despite the possible bias, I do regard the context of her work as exceedingly important. As it hones in on space making for women and artists of colour to stand in solidarity.

On a final note, some of her work was relatively hard to grasp. I found myself questioning her choice of textures and recordings. Abstract layers of sound that may raise eyebrows but do not seem specifically connected enough to the themes she stands for. The sonic confusion I’m faced with makes me ask whether some of her work is an appropriate way to bring attention to gender and racial constucts, as it can propagate misconceptions. Surely when addressing such important matters in todays day and age, does this abstractivity blur the line?

Post Lecture Response

Like much of her work I’d looked into, her lecture seemed to take on the form of a recorded sound piece. Sounds and textures laced with thought provoking statements and questions surrounding privilege and art spaces, with occasional breaks consisting of her thoughts and experiences. Percussive rhythms, slightly out of sync, over a heartbeat stood out to me as interesting way of incorporating biological rhythms into more complex structures of sound and music. motifs of a kettle whistling suggested a conscious choice to use anxiety inducing sounds. beyond this however it was, once again, hard for me to draw the connection between her elements of sound and the context of her speech. Unfortunately, without access to a QnA I was unable to ask her what drove her choice in textures.

Her dialogue and the lyrical content of her work was intriguing nevertheless, particularly when expanding on the word ‘enduring’ as an act of passive acceptance of societal norms.

Ive chosen not to expand further on her lecture as I feel I’d be repeating much of what I mentioned in the pre-response, due to much of her work being very similar and theme and context.

References

“A Perfect Fit.” S A V V Y Contemporary, 2020, savvy-contemporary.com/en/events/2020/listening-stations-shanti-suki-osman/. Accessed 18 Jan. 2021.

“Ballhaus Naunynstraße.” Ballhausnaunynstrasse.De, 2019, ballhausnaunynstrasse.de/play/future_sounds/. Accessed 18 Jan. 2021.

Pollard, Madeleine. “The Sounds of Activism: Shanti Suki Osman.” EXBERLINER.com, 5 June 2019, www.exberliner.com/whats-on/stage/shanti-suki-osman-future-sounds-interview/. Accessed 18 Jan. 2021.

—. “The Sounds of Activism: Shanti Suki Osman.” EXBERLINER.com, 5 June 2019, www.exberliner.com/whats-on/stage/shanti-suki-osman-future-sounds-interview/. Accessed 18 Jan. 2021.

Pre Lecture Response
Yassmin’s take on movement and dance, primarily created by black people, describes it as an ‘intangible cultural heritage’. As I attempt to interpret this phrase, it seems as if her views lie in the inability to fully connect with movement as an art form due to a lack of discourse between the audience and the artist regarding its connoted historical roots.

Her Dance Documentation – ‘Labanotation of popping’ expands on this by referencing how the body can act as an instrument across cultures, through performance, and how the resulting dance has the ability to ‘represent a different culture than the one it is performing’. Her idea that this blurred recognition caused by our generation’s mash up of genres and creative heritage brings about implications of misrepresentation and a resulting loss of merit. She describes this obscurity as ‘bodies out of place’.

Cultural misuse and appropriation of ethnic minorities via their art-forms have been rife since before I can remember. Historically, to the best of my knowledge, music has constantly been diluted by corporations in order to turn a misguided idea of taboo, grounded in institutional racism, into a form deemed more representative for consumption. A particular example of this would be Motown and other forms of black music throughout the 20th century. Instead of being given an equal platform to that of their white counterparts, they were forced to sign their financial souls away to greedy white agents and labels. In context to Yassmin’s work however, this digression is my attempt to draw similarities between the erosion and theft of core elements of black music, camouflaged in pop music, to the inference she makes to the cultural invalidity of dance.

While I agree with her notion of cultural alienation, I can’t help but think that in today’s society the cross blending of culture has given rise to brilliant niche genres and some of the most interesting takes on art, dance and music. By addressing these issues would it limit our ability to fuse various artforms, thus inhibiting its inevitable evolution? Or is there a more graceful way in which these implications can be tackled, amalgamating genres whilst paying enough homage to satisfy centuries of racial inequality? I’m still not entirely sure I have correctly grasped her views however.

Post Lecture Response
Through the lens of Yassmin’s research, listening (as a bodily absorption of music) and the ways in which we categorise, remember and react to it is a matter of subjectivity. A personal response that differs with each individual. I strongly agree with this view. Its truth is impossible to deny when one considers the multitude of constituents that make up a human being. Influences, upbringing and intimate experiences that bestow us with varying personalities, opinions and tastes. This basis of opinion has enlightened my understanding of her work/ research that I was struggling to gauge beforehand. The apparent dislocation of cultural heritage can be largely down to the knowledge of an audience, as their limited comprehension of where certain music or dance has come from has the ability to affect their reaction to it.

Growing up in an environment heavily revolved around sound systems, Yassmin was exposed to the notion of inclusivity within music from an early age, further emphasising the power and influence community has on art (A thought that Jessica Ekomane, a previous practitioner, also touched on). These cultural experiences shaped the way in which she approached and consumed music and dance, in the same way our own experiences have shaped ours.

Much like a marching band, there is something powerful to the synchronicity in sound and movement that can captivate us in a single moment. If we relate this to any other context in which people have gathered to move with one another, we can bridge the gap between music, dance and its affect on social structures.

Her involvement in the LEGS 11 SOUND-SYSTEM demonstrates a pocket of culture where this is evident; born from the desire of people of African and Caribbean descent to create a safe space to engage and grow in without the stereotype of the media or other forms of propaganda. The British landscape throughout the 20th century was unwelcoming for black people. Sound System culture gave them an outlet to speak politically, dress how they wanted, share in their joys and woes and to move freely in the company of familiar faces, uninhibited by the constant reminder of their assumed inferiority to the white man. A place where they could relate to one another about their daily fight. While these safe spaces can start in the home, in many cases home can be a hostile environment, reinforcing the cruciality of safety in social spaces (e.g. community centres, church halls).

Her discourse has shown me that historical context can allow us to respond to art in a more appropriate way. The knowledge base of an audience can affect how they’ll react to the music. Yet an individuals inhibitions can limit the ways in which one decodes music in their unconscious or conscious response.
I realise now that it is not the cultural blending of art that she refers to, but how the understanding of cultural context can help artists and consumers alike feel more satisfied and connected to one another, whilst also bringing issues of social and racial disparity to the fore.

Reference list

FOSTER, Y. (2021). DANCE DOCUMENTATION – THE LABANOTATION OF POPPING. [online] Blackartistsmodernism.co.uk. Available at: http://www.blackartistsmodernism.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/05-Yassmin-V-Foster.jpg.

Stuart Hall Foundation. (n.d.). Yassmin V. Foster. [online] Available at: http://stuarthallfoundation.org/what-we-do/fellowships-and-scholarships/yassmin-v.-foster/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2021].‌

Berlin based musician and sound artist Jessica Ekomane has a unique perspective on sound that she demonstrates through live installations and performances. A key part of her sonic vision is the interplay between psycho-acoustics, perceptions of rhythmic structures and the interchange of noise and melody. Questions grounded in the relationship between individual perception and collective dynamics permeate throughout her work. Yet what fascinates me the most is her ability to turn sound into a transformative element through mediums that ignite thought and psychological response, as opposed to its more traditional roots in feeling and emotion.

Her first record released on Important Records, Multi-vocal, is a prime example of Jessica’s utility of psychoacoustics and perception to play with the capacity of the body to understand complex knowledge. Also interesting to note is her use of quadraphonics to further enhance the spatial imagery and tension of the track.

Serving as a gateway into the comprehension of rhythmic structure and its effects on the mind and body, ‘Multivocal’ was made using 13 metronomes in MAXMSP (a visual programming language for music and multimedia), all tuned to a different pitch and with differing BPMs of 1ms. The listening experience starts with all pulsations beginning at the same point, layered on top of one another in static cohesiveness. However as time passes, the inevitable shift from vertical to horizontal begins as each and every metronome gradually starts to go out of phase with one another, creating an ever-changing rhythmic and melodic structure over the course of 20 unfathomable minutes. The polyphonic maze that ensues does not throw the listener into an abyss of motion however. But rather eases one into a meditative state that feeds off of this sonic organism. Much like the hold and release of consciousness in sleep, without actively engaging between one moment and another, the human brain is wired in a way to glaze over subtle differences that may occur. The beauty of ‘Multivocal’ therein lies in the overall temporality of said situations, where waiting for the next event may be futile in comparison to the appreciation of the process as a whole.

As I delved into it’s contextual meat and potatoes, a specific psychological practice stood out to me as one of the prevailing conceptual forces behind this sound piece. Namely, that of ‘Gestalt Psychology’. The German word ‘Gestalt’ has no exact equivalent in english, and is usually translated as ‘form’, ‘pattern’ or ‘configuration’. It’s proponents define it as the [physical, biological or symbolic configuration or pattern of element so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be identified from a simple summation of its parts]. In layman’s terms Gestalt psychologists emphasise that [organisms perceive entire patterns of configurations, not merely individual components], i.e ‘the whole is more than the sum of its parts’. This opened up a whole new way of thinking for me personally, as someone that tends to overanalyse specific elements in thought, sound and life in general. As I proceeded to listen to ‘Multivocal’ for a second time, consciously losing myself in its overall intertwining nature, I found myself perceiving its complex structure in a way that was much easier to retain and place in memory, and in turn giving me a deeper appreciation of its meaning. Jessica’s ability to summon thought processes in such a way can open up avenues of sound exploration that pave the way to out of the box thinking. At the very least, it did so for me.

Her catalogue of works all give rise to, in some shape or form, important personal and interpersonal questions. One other demonstration of this was her commissioned piece, ‘Citizen Band’ for Ö1 (national Austrian radio station) and Musikprotokoll festival in Graz. Namely, a radio intervention using the space between AM and FM as a [range for short-distance communication between individuals], [Initially thought as the « poor man’s business-band radio]. Used widely by the working class, specifically in this case, truck drivers in the US, this intervention highlights ideas of classism by allowing differing voices and ears on our social hierarchy to meet via the frequency spectrum. However, what i found most interesting about Citizen’s Band is that anyone can tune in, making it public domain. 30 nationally broadcasted minutes of anonymous conversations, that allow us to peer into, what some turn out to be, very intimate conversations. I found that the intrusive and invasive nature of this piece of art gave rise to many questions. Were the voices aware that they were being listened to? Were they asked for consent? If so, would that have taken away from the pieces vulnerable innocence and, as a result, made it less thought provoking. An introspective work that questions the nature of privacy, Jessica shows how, through sonic voyeurism, the act of displacing one context into another can reveal hidden structures.

A heavy involvement in the physical aspect of making and participating in sound, most of Jessica’s work takes place in, but is not limited to, art spaces and music venues. Seemingly, anywhere that fosters creative inclusivisity. Her belief pertains to the idea of social ritualism that takes place when people/ communities engage in music. Actively opposing the class disparities in other forms of art. This idea of inclusivity extends to her extensive use of rhythm in her compositional work. For even without a solidified background in music and its theory, everyone can react to and understand rhythm in their own way, giving it more democratic value. An intriguing concept in which complex ideas can be transmitted through body knowledge. I would personally describe her as an abstract sonic linguist that uses the phenomena of trance, rhythm and open ended imagery to relate to human beings on an entirely different plane than those that we are used to. A refreshing approach to the division between body and mind her work has given me a deeper appreciation of art that i may not have understood before, whilst also inspiring me to give equal amounts of attention to the way I intend to touch an audience, the separate components of my musical work, but most importantly how its overall fusion is a more intricate art than I once deemed it to be.

A rather insightful view into the world of commission based scoring, Alexandra Hamilton Ayres touched on many areas of interest that stood out to me a great deal. Her early orchestral experiences echoed a similar spoon-fed, linear and numerical take on music that I had underwent playing in orchestra’s growing up. However her summary of the advantages that playing in an ensemble can offer has given me a newfound faith in its ability to better my ear, composition and reactivity as a musician and sound artist. All of which reinforces a coincidental decision I’d made over lockdown to join the Aeolian Orchestra.

Her choice of instrumentation to contextualise a plot was also interesting. Particularly in the soundtrack to Douglas King’s ‘Do No Harm’ based around a woman with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Alexandra’s use of the ‘Sousaphone’ to create brassy cyclical tracks, ignites the protagonists inner voice whilst her repetition of motif’s and use of effects (delays/ granular filters) bring this idea of perfectionism/ attention to detail and overwhelming routine thats associated with OCD to the forefront of the image. The importance she seems to place on textures to create moods and (in ‘Do No Harm’s Case) build climactic tension is a thought process that will definitely stay with me.

Digressions

Leading on from my research into Alexandra’s work I discovered an artist she had worked with called John Taverner. What stood out the most to me was his use of The Tibetan bowl, accompanied by a string quartet, in his piece ‘Towards silence’. This example of incorporating traditionally non musical components/ instruments into a song-like sound piece pushes my own preconceived idea on the the boundary between music and meditation. The four part score, based around a school of hinduism called Vedanta (“a waking state, a dream state, a condition of deep sleep, and “that which is beyond”) [http://5against4.com/2012/04/07/john-tavener-towards-silence-european-premiere/] is told through emotive violins, seamlessly weaving around the ethereal textures brought about by the Tibetan bowls reverberations.

For symbolic reasons the bowl is struck every nineteen beats, yet as the fourth movement begins it increasingly becomes an omnipresent force, occasionally engulfing the quartet’s delicate textures, and as a result reinforcing its mood, at times eerie, and at others up-lifting. This marriage between melody, harmony and hypnotic reverie takes one out of their head and into a body high, introduces momentum and movement, but most of all gives us the incomprehensible sense of continuity, as if the piece carries on, past the bowl’s final note, into eternity.