Sonophagia can be understood
as ‘sonic ingestion’, where sounds, voices, and auditory practices are consumed, transformed, and re-contextualized to subvert
dominant narratives, particularly in a postcolonial context. More broadly, sonophagy explores the speculative reciprocity
of the (spiritual, political, physical) representation of one medium within another.
Sonophagia emanates from indigenous
Amazonian cosmologies, where the states of the Other – both prey and predator – are consumed in order to assimilate
the signs of their alterity. In these cosmologies, singing or speaking is understood as a practice akin to killing,
both of which serve to become the Other. The singer or speaker perceives themselves as a subject at the moment
they declare their uniqueness by hearing their own voice through the voice of the Other, thereby de-hierarchizing
difference. The term that aligns with the Other, or the enemy, is ‘future music’.
Sonophagia extends
beyond sound to include words, things, bodies, and non-humans. It is found in the devouring of animal and corporeal sounds
by humans for poetic purposes, aiming to undermine the alphabetical and capitalist order. Sonophagia also explores how certain
human sound frequencies are consumed by non-humans for their growth, and how language parasites – both literally and metaphorically
– bring about humans being ‘spoken’.
Can we imagine a futuristic, parasitic being that preys on speech and sound
vibrations, including the sounds of battle, screams, and environmental noise, thriving on them as a energy source?
Such
disruptions of referentiality lead to a biological, poetic, sonic, and linguistic entanglement in which postanthropocentric
interests become audible.
With: Jens Hauser (BioMedia, Moderator), Melanie Strasser (Tupi or not Tupi),
Ana María Ochoa (Acoustic Multinaturalism), Matthias Lewy (Indigenous Sonorism), Sean Braune (Language Parasites), Tristam
Vivian Adams (Vocal Capitalism), Theresa Schubert (mEat Me), Svenja Kratz (Bone Breath), and Klaus Spiess & Emanuel Gollob
(Eating Caruso)LASER Talks are a collaborative Art&Science lecture format with Leonardo MIT Press,
associated with 40 universities globally. The Vienna LASER is currently hosted by the Medical University in partnership with
the Department of Media Theory, University of Applied Arts.
Leonardo/ISAST LASER Talks is a program of
international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations,
performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of LASER is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment
of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities and 5 continents
worldwide.
More About the LASER (Leonardo Art & Science
Evening Rendevouz) SeriesFunded by PEEK AR 687 Semiotic Sympoiesis for the Posthuman Commons and the Angewandte
Interdisciplinary Laboratory
Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab (AIL) is an experimental space and a platform
for projects at the intersection of art, science and artistic research, run by the University of Applied Arts Vienna. AIL
is located in the Otto Wagner-Postsparkasse and home of Café Exchange (Free entry)
