Bernd Herzogenrath: Sounding the Air, Sounding the Earth: Towards Sonic Deterritorialization

Bernd Herzogenrath is Professor of American Studies at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. His research and interests include film studies, sound studies, and media philosophy.
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/42971097/Bernd_Herzogenrath

Abstract

When it comes to territories, the concept of the border is a most crucial one – on the one hand, just an ‘imaginary’ line, on the other hand, a demarcation in which the realities of power and injustice become manifest. In this paper, I would like to focus on two artists and their projects of ‘working through’ the concept of the border in their different sonic productions: on the one hand John Luther Adams’ ‘border-crossing’ performance of Inuksuit at Friendship Park, on the other hand the work of Australian artist Jon Rose, who calls himself a "fencologist" – an artist who has played music on all types of fences, from barbed wires to army fences, worldwide.

Whether it was playing the Mexico/USA border fence in the Sonoran Desert, or the separation fence in Bil'in, a Palestinian village located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate – Rose, for the past 30 or so years, has been playing fences with a bow. And while people on both sides of the fence come, and join, and listen, Rose has always dodged authorities while doing so: e.g., in November 2006, Rose was detained and later released by Israeli Defence Forces. Rose’s art creates sonic de|territories in situ.

The lecture is held as a part of the project Phenomenological Explorations of Sound Environments supported by Czech Grant Agency