Ausgabe 1.2020 / Auditive Perspektiven
Guest editor: Anne Zeitz
The unheard often remains unnoticed. What we hear and what we do not, what we notice and what we do not is determined not only by our physiological aural capacities but by a complex intermingling of social, cultural, political and technological factors. The different contributions to this publication focus on artistic and literary works that concentrate on the unheard sonic spectrum of the past and present. The cultural, social or political phenomena questioned here are related to frequencies below or beyond the threshold of perception, to overlapping sound fields or to auditory distraction. The sounds they make use of or express have been obliterated, disguised, “drowned”. Listening to the unheard thus means to reveal or seek explanation for the silencing, concealment or disappearance of these sounds.
Beyond this dimension of lack of perception, of ignorance or of disregard, another subliminal meaning associated with the unheard appears here, especially when it encounters the unheard-of: what is “surprising because not known about or previously experienced”. Thus, the sense of the hidden and of discretion is confronted with the sense of the unprecedented as well as the shocking. The authors of this publication tackle the understanding of that which can be at once shocking and discreet, heard and unheard. From the analysis of different typologies of the inaudible to the reflection on the politics of the unheard, the contributions question the notions of muted sound, voice and accent, sonic interruptions, parasites, tactics of sound erasure, temporal deferral, silencing techniques and practices of listening. Sound Unheard includes contributions from scholars in sound studies, art history, post-colonial studies, musicology and art theory.
This edition of Auditory Perspectives was conceived by Jan Thoben and Anne Zeitz and developed in discussion with the authors. It is part of the eponymous research project initiated by Anne Zeitz and made possible by the research laboratory PTAC-Pratiques et Théories de l'art contemporain, Université Rennes 2. The edition was prepared by several workshops with the authors starting from 2018 at the Goethe-Institut Paris as well as a symposium at the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes in February 2019 (organized with Séverine Cauchy and Yann Sérandour).
The research project is related to two exhibitions, a lecture and performance programme and a seminar, each of which is presented in this publication:
Échos magnétiques — Christina Kubisch at the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes in February and March 2019 (curated by Damien Simon and Anne Zeitz in collaboration with Clélia Barbut).
Sound Unheard at the Goethe-Institut Paris in September and October 2019 (curated by Daniele Balit, Katharina Scriba and Anne Zeitz).
The performance and lecture programme Inaudible Matters at the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris (organized by Marie Lechner and Anne Zeitz).
The seminar “Écouter par les yeux” (Listening with the Eyes), Reflecting on exhibitions, sound works and archival documents with René Block and Christina Kubisch at the German Center for Art History in Paris (organized by Mathilde Arnoux and Anne Zeitz).
Open peer review by: Clélia Barbut, Daniele Balit, Séverine Cauchy, Katja Gentric, Maud Jacquin, Sébastien Pluot, Matthieu Saladin, Sabine Sanio, Jan Thoben, Elvan Zabunyan, Anne Zeitz
with the participation of: Jeff Guess, Larisa Dryansky, Daniela Silvestrin and Yann Sérandour.
CONTENTS:
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelThe Inaudible as an Effect: Tactics of Sound Erasure in Max Neuhaus About his sound installation presented at MoMA in 1978, Max Neuhaus explained: “the sound itself was inaudible; what was audible was its effect on other sounds. It was a terrain of an inaudible sound which modified all the ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelRodney Graham’s Unexpected Interrupters The works of Rodney Graham that are analysed in this article, Phonokinétoscope (2001), Super-Heavy Flute (2012) and The King’s Part (1999), are invitations to multiple understandings, references which are pointed to or ...
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2020-01-28Zeitschriftenartikel“Dissolving your Ear Plugs”: The Unheard in Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Practice This article explores Pauline Oliveros’ practice of Deep Listening and argues that it is inherently concerned with the experience of the “unheard”. Deep Listening involves “going below the surface of what is heard”, not ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelMedia Parasites, Specificity and the Unheard The auditory experience of technical mediation is related to certain perceptual techniques we have developed in order to differentiate between meaningful sound and undesired parasitic artefacts. The act of ‘unhearing’ ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelA Matter of Fidelity The phrase “high fidelity” might be said to be “tuned to moralist resonances”. The promise of technological transparency implies that sounds and images should not be altered during translations between recording, restitution ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelQuiet Discomfort: On Silence as Aural Discrimination In 1970 the artist Markus Raetz imagined a device for capturing and listening to silence, through headphones connected to a soundproofed space. A few years later, in 1978, an “audio epiphany” inspired Amar Bose, during a ...
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2020-01-28Zeitschriftenartikel[Un]performing Voice: Simnikiwe Buhlungu / Euridice Zaituna Kala Two unspectacular interventions performed in central Johannesburg by Simnikiwe Buhlungu and Euridice Zaituna Kala evidence the performativity of voice in public space, addressing the unheard in contemporary society, operating ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelThe Muted Sound of Speaking Silence The Middle Passage, the transatlantic slave trade, gives rise to a number of reflections on how African slavery between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries was the beginning of a turning point in history. The one-way ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelAkustische Räume, Für Augen und Ohren, Musique en conteneur, Der befreite Klang: Retracing the Heard and Unheard Curatorial Practice of René Block from the 1960s to the 1980s The starting point of this article is the exhibition Der befreite Klang, Kunst für Augen und Ohren (Liberated Sound, Art for the Eyes and the Ears) conceived by the German curator René Block in 1986 for a castle in Austria ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelTemporal Drag – Scores for Memory: Reflections on an Interview with Christina Kubisch Focused on Christina Kubisch’s performance art works in the1970s, the article gives an account of Kubisch’s interview with Clélia Barbut, recorded during the artist’s exhibition at the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes, Échos ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelÉchos magnétiques: Christina Kubisch at the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes The exhibition Échos magnétiques — Christina Kubisch took place at the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes /France from 15 February to 14 April 2019. It was curated by Damien Simon and Anne Zeitz in collaboration with Clélia ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelSound Unheard – An Exhibition at the Goethe-Institut Paris The exhibition Sound Unheard took place at the Goethe-Institut Paris/France from 13 September to 27 October 2019. It was curated by Daniele Balit, Katharina Scriba and Anne Zeitz. The exhibition connects the foundational ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelInaudible Matters Inaudible Matters, a project including Electrical Walks Paris by Christina Kubisch as well as a programme of lectures and performances, took place at the Gaîté Lyrique Paris from 12 September to 12 December 2019. Inaudible ...
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2020-01-28Zeitschriftenartikel“Écouter par les yeux” (Listening with the Eyes): Reflecting on exhibitions, sound works and archival documents with René Block and Christina Kubisch The seminar “Écouter par les yeux” (Listening with the Eyes), Reflecting on exhibitions, sound works and archival documents with René Block and Christina Kubisch took place on 15 October 2019 at the German Center for Art ...
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2020-01-28ZeitschriftenartikelSound Unheard: Editorial and Contents The unheard often remains unnoticed. What we hear and what we do not, what we notice and what we do not is determined not only by our physiological aural capacities but by a complex intermingling of social, cultural, ...