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Paper short abstract:

I interrogate the case of snow and ice sounding in Southern Chile and Antarctica, demonstrating how their various forms of vibration and representation simultaneously reinforce and undermine geopolitical classifications of the Antarctic during accelerated climate change.

Paper long abstract:

Chile is one of seven countries with a territorial claim in the Antarctic, though most of the 56 parties to the Antarctic Treaty do not recognize its sovereignty. Nevertheless, Chile’s southernmost region, Magallanes y Antártica Chilena, both reaffirms the nation’s claim and administratively ties southern Chile with the Antarctic Peninsula. Initiatives like the newly-approved International Antarctic Center in Punta Arenas (the region’s capital) reflect a recent impetus to build an Antarctic, polar identity within the community. More specifically, musicians such as electroacoustic duo Lluvia Ácida work to create an Antarctic sound that sonically reinforces ties between Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica. However, projects of Antarctic identity-building pertaining to music and sound by human actors only exist as one point of inquiry within larger sonic ecosystems.

In this paper, I demonstrate how sonic properties of non-human actors complicate human-constructed geographical identities in Southern Chilean Patagonia and Antarctica. Using Nina Eidsheim’s concept of vibrational practice (2015) as a starting point, I suggest expanded possibilities for assembling “vibrational nodes” as points of sonic inquiry. I specifically interrogate the case of snow and ice sounding, demonstrating how their various forms of vibration and representation simultaneously reinforce and undermine geopolitical classifications of the Antarctic during accelerated climate change. I consider Antarctic field recordings and the audiovisual exhibit “Una Pizsca de Luz” as sites of geopolitical negotiation, blending multi-species ethnography, new materialisms, archival research, and storytelling in this postdisciplinary study. Accordingly, the presentation contributes to and invites new possibilities for methodologies in sound studies of the Anthropocene.