Through forms and ideas of close and extended listening, this workshop is an invitation to develop artistic modes that emphasize on the awareness of 'vibrant matter' that surrounds us, with a special focus on sonic appearances. It will be a three-day collective research and experimental laboratory where we will discuss concepts, terms and methodologies to approach the world, its inherent vibrancy and its entanglements. The workshop proposes to go on re/searching for other possible meanings and interpretations of what we perceive in our daily lives.
During the workshop, artistic works as well as studies from other disciplines will be presented, studied, and listened to, all in relation to oscillating forces and more-than-human vibrancy – drawing on Jane Bennett's concept of 'vibrant matter' which serves as a key reference for this exploration – in order to guide our understanding of the environment as a permeable, never-static realm where we are interconnected.
The questions that we will be addressing during these three days will include: How could an awareness of the vibrant and sonic fabric of the world help us build a sound relationship with our surroundings? How can this be artistically represented in the more-than-human complexities and perspectives on the environment and beyond? How could these concepts, narratives, and speculations attune us to urgent issues regarding the environmental crisis and inform collective actions?
Based on examples, concepts and discussions from the workshop, the students will work on connections and interfaces between the topic of sound and vibrancy – which may go beyond auditory perception – and their own artistic and theoretical practices. At the end of the three days, the results of the artistic explorations by the participants, which may remain processual and fragmentary propositions, will be presented and brought into a multidimensional, polyphonic, open discussion.