Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the sonic worlds of women electronic music composers and artists, in both Asia and the West, where technological improvisation is used to mediate perceived other- or inner-worldly experiences and challenge patterns of exclusion.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I contend that electronic music constitutes a productive, yet under-researched, area for understanding the synergies between technology, corporeality, materiality, and spirituality. I focus on the field of avant-garde electronic music, more specifically on some of its pioneering women artists from different parts of the globe. The latter provide a valuable resource for exploring the capacity of new sound and music technologies to mediate the perceived other- or inner-worldly, and to do spiritual, in addition to cultural and political, work. Significantly, improvisation is a hallmark of their soundscapes, and an emancipatory act for many. In seeking to discern the religious roots and spiritual inflections of these women electronic composers and performers the researcher must navigate a range of resources whether documentaries (Sisters with Transistors, 2021), publications, recordings, interviews, networks, festivals, websites or social media. Another (exciting) challenge for religion scholars venturing into these new sonic territories is to analyze the discursive framing--whether transhuman, transcendent, immanent, sublime, transformative, meditative, or mystical--for what this conveys about gendered cross-cultural engagements with the post-secular.