VIDEOGRAM 124
Sounds from the Ground
This talk unpacks the finesse and intricacies with which some of the pre-colonial and pre-modern sound-producing instruments and objects were conceived and built in South Asia using indigenous technologies and methods in ways that destabilized the nature-society binary, contrary to the methods of European modernity. I argue that these indigenous sonic technologies were as sophisticated as the technology understood from a Western modernist and colonialist understanding of it riding on ideas of control, surveillance and exploitation of nature and human resources. The talk and the discussion substantiate the view that these indigenous sound technologies had an embedded quality to them, and it makes no sense today to adhere to the hierarchy of “high tech” and “low tech”. I suggest expanding the terms of media arts and sound arts or sound technology-driven arts in the Western taxonomies, represented often by large-scale, spectacular immersive media arts proliferated in large-scale festivals in the West. Given the historical examples of artistic practices using pre-modern technologies in South Asia, the talk proposes to redefine what sounding arts mean, aiming to decolonize sonic and media arts, giving due credits to the artists and artisans from the Global South.
9.5.2023, 19:00 CET, online (click for the Zoom link)
BUDHADITYA CHATTOPADHYAY
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is a contemporary artist, researcher, and writer. Chattopadhyay produces works for large-scale installations and live performance addressing contemporary issues of environment and ecology, migration, race, and decoloniality. His works have been widely exhibited, performed, or presented across the globe. Chattopadhyay has an expansive body of scholarly publications in artistic research, media theory and aesthetics in leading peer-reviewed journals. He is the author of four books: The Nomadic Listener (2020), The Auditory Setting (2021), Between the Headphones (2021), and Sound Practices in the Global South (2022). Chattopadhyay holds a PhD in Artistic Research and Sound Studies from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the Critical Media Lab, Basel, Switzerland.