Workshop organised by Sonic Acts & Salwa Foundation
Insurgent Learning
Description
Throughout this workshop led by Marshall Trammell and Ghenwa noiré, together with the other participants, we explored personal archives of migration, uncovering histories from the Levant and postcolonial North Africa.
Reflecting on the impacts of surveillance and border control, we shaped a non-extractive, community-led practice, reimagining improvisation as powerful tool for resilience.
Technical Aspects :
•Visual Scores - based on the research & personal stories shared, as a way of exploring the concept of code switching, we went to a metal warehouse, and together we created shapes on wooden pieces.
•Sound Installation - following an email thread, each of us added a sentence or two to a sentence weʼd receive via email, which resulted in a 3 pages long piece.
At SingelKerk, we recorded the words, then a sound engineer made a few recordings of the recordings in the space - until the piece was completely muffled. It was played as part of the performance.
•Live-performance - using the visual scores, each of us chose an instrument to bring and through active listening, cues from the audience, bodily expressions, we improvised and performed
Choice for Visual Score - multilayered & encompasses the following interpretations
Self : I see the circles as a representation of all the participants, each of us coming with their own em- bodied, subjective experiences. By bringing our object/instrument, we are able to express ourselves and assert those experiences.
Inter-personal : The curved lines in between represent the fluidity between things, they are not as fixed, we are influencing each other, by choosing to perform together, and sharing our experiences, is an illus- tration of how things are more connected than they seem. Furthermore, it invites us to have a musical conversation, how should we respond to each other? I see this also as an illustration of negotiation be- tween the self and the other.
Symbolic : The big X in the middle, represents the point of objectification - on a systematic level. What codes of conduct must we follow? How do they restrict us?
Playing around with the three layers and code switching between points of objectification and the em- bodied and interpersonal.
Technical : I chose to bring a midi controller that would allow me to switch between different recordings I did. The circles in this sense are the different content shared, the curved lines are the ability to switch in-between them, creating different codes yet they remain fixed by the choice of the instrument - repre- sented by the big X, the medium is the message in this sense! A reflection on (technological) tools and their impact on our lives in a broader sense and the invisible layers of surveillance in a specific sense.
Theoretical : I was thinking of Karen Baradʼs concept - Agential cuts which comes from her theory of agential realism, which combines quantum physics and poststructuralist philosophy. In this framework, agential cuts refer to the boundaries that are created when distinctions are made between entities in the world(the circles), but these boundaries are not inherent. Instead, they are produced through specific in- tra-actions (interactions that shape entities - in this example the curved lines). Unlike traditional cuts that separate independent objects, agential cuts are part of the process through which the worldʼs phenome- na come into being, with agencies participating in the shaping of reality( represented by the X).
Barad argues that these cuts don't precede the phenomena; they are made by the intra-actions, thus de- termining what is included or excluded in the process of materialising reality.
In essence, agential cuts highlight that objects, subjects, and boundaries are not pre-existing but are en- acted through relational processes. .
