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- Convenors:
-
Matthias Lewy
(Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts)
Patricia Jäggi (University of Zürich)
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- Stream:
- Extinction
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 31 March, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Silence is a prevalent extinction topos that is not only multisensorial but also resonates in different concepts and modes of existence. This panel aims to reveal different qualities of silence and silencing and the related strategies of reverse-silencing in Indigenous and non-indigenous world(s).
Long Abstract:
Extinction is not only a phenomenon of silencing species, but also one that often happens silently itself, unnoticed by humans. When certain birds disappear, the declining richness in sound and biodiversity may go unheeded. For Indigenous societies dependent on animals for their livelihood, the silencing of animals intensifies dependence on governmental nutrition programs (e.g. in Brazil). Silence may thus serve as an indicator for losses in the perception of the environment.
Silences are perceived multisensorially and reflected in different concepts and/or modes of existence. A striking response to this phenomenon is reverse-silencing, in which people connect with and express (new) trans- and interspecific worlds, not only addressing losses, but also imagining futures that are non-silent, vivid, and - most importantly - that do not silence other beings. Among Indigenous strategies of reverse-silencing are interspecies communications with animals and other spirits by re-activating shamanic and other ritual forms (e.g. Guianas, Pemon). Silence in and of itself can hold hopes for the continuity of human and non-human world(s). The sudden quieting of humans during the Covid-19 lockdown, for example, gave way to imaginings of a world in which humans do not dominate the environment but rather hold back and share the space with others.
In this panel we would like to reflect on the process of extinction as a creeping silent threat that needs not only to be heard and articulated but also to be felt and expressed in various artistic forms. We welcome contributions that deal with silence, silencing, and reverse-silencing.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 31 March, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper looks at different ways in which mindfulness is practiced through listening to and silencing of sounds, and its attendant potential to impact understandings and imaginings of humans’ relationship with their lived environment.
Paper long abstract:
This paper looks at different ways in which mindfulness is practiced through listening to and silencing of sounds, and its attendant potential to impact understandings and imaginings of humans’ relationship with their lived environment. Silence on the part of the practitioner is presupposed as a condition for mindfulness. This is however, often accompanied by intentional silencing of other human noise, with high value placed on “nature” sounds, either by practicing in a non-built setting or through recordings. Parallel to this type of practice, and at the heart of mindfulness through listening, is the non-judgmental listening to all sounds – including human-produced sounds, which not only includes human noise, but may even foreground it.
Drawing on popular and academic literature on mindfulness, as well as accounts from interviews on the topic of birds and bird sounds, I consider these different ways of practicing mindfulness through sound and address inherent contradictions between them and the potential they each hold. I critically analyze the high value placed on “nature” sounds – both elemental and bird sounds – whether in-situ or as human-mediated recordings, as well as the role of the imagination. While silencing human-produced sounds offers an idealized or decontextualized setting for mindfulness practice, listening to all sounds offers a greater awareness of the relationships between human-created and non-human sounds. I discuss the varying ways these practices allow people to connect with and imagine their lived environment, and implications for our relationship with – and responsibility to – the world we live in.
Paper short abstract:
What does a post-anthropocene world sound like? This paper undertakes an imaginary journey into sonic futures after the anthropocene. It explores reports and observations from the human silencing during the first lockdown phase of the Covid19 pandemic as a realword experience of reversed silence.
Paper long abstract:
What does a post-anthropocene world sound like? An ecological model of sound - resp. of noise and silence - in the Anthropocene is outlined, followed by an imaginary journey into sonic futures after the Anthropocene. For that purpose the paper references reports and observations from the first lockdown phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, framed as a sudden glimpse of a sonic post-anthropocene; a sudden human silencing that enabled or even forced people to get in contact with the vividness of their immediate environment such as singing birds. This realworld experience of reversed silence can be understood as a reverie in the sense of Gaston Bachelard because it made people also think about other possible (sounding) worlds. The paper aims to discuss sonic and aural reveries of a post-anthropocene and post-anthropocentric world or reversed silence.