YNK

YNK 

Electronic Animism, Cosmic Diplomacy, Sonic Fabulation,  Blasted Landscapes / Abundant Futures & Field Study. 

Over five chapters unfolding a plurality of sonic expressions, imaginaries and thought, YNK (for You Never Know) interrogates relations to nonhumans, nature, bodies and matter.

YNK is part of SAVVY Funk, an iteration of Every Time A Ear Di Soun, a documenta 14 Radio Programme, and was broadcast live from the Berlin project space SAVVY Contemporary in-beween June 17 and July 7, 2017 (on FM, on short waves and online).  SAVVY Funk was conceived as a 24/7 radio-programme shaped by eighteen artists. For it, the spaces of SAVVY Contemporary were transformed into a radio-station, an open studio and a platform where audio material and sonic content was produced live during twenty-two days. Curators: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Marcus Gammel, and Elena Agudio. Further reading and detailed programme here

COSMIC DIPLOMACY

YNK #2 + #7 A conversation with Dipesh Chakrabarty in two parts

(part 1)

(part 2)

Dipesh Chakrabarty is a historian, born in Calcutta and currently living and teaching in Chicago. In his work, he has challenged the concept of a Eurocentric historicism from a post-colonial and subaltern studies' perspective. His engagement with the idea of the concept of the Anthropocene has become a key starting point for rethinking the humanities in the era of anthropogenic climate change.

In the first part of our conversation, we discussed the concept of the Anthropocene, about sustainability versus habitability, about invasive, dominant and companion species, about the human sense of drama and the human sense of time in the era of climate change. In  part two, we explore some of these topics further, through the prisms of ancient and new religions, the growth track of humanity and towards the necessity of a new imagination.

YNK #14 A conversation with César E. Giraldo Herrera

César E. Giraldo Herrera is a Colombian Biologist and Anthropologist currently based in Oxford, where he is a Victoria Maltby Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College. His research interests include biosemiotics, the physiology of perception, environmental anthropology, bicultural syncretism, craftsmanship and studies of science, technology, and medicine. Departing from thoughts he develops in his soon to be published book, with the preliminary title "Microbes and other spirits: Crossroads of microbiology and Amerindian shamanism," we talked about how departing from the concept of Decolonization of thought, the knowledge of Amerindian shamans and animic communities shall be reclaimed.

YNK #18 A conversation with Juanita Sundberg

The cultural geographer Juanita Sundberg is currently teaching at the Department of Geography of the Trinity University in British Columbia. She works at the intersection of political ecology, feminist geopolitics, and critical theories of race. Her research examines the ways in which gender, race, and belonging articulate with nature protection at multiple scales. Currently she is researching on how nature is enrolled in struggles over national identity and belonging and, how boundary making practices concern the entangled wellbeing of human and nonhuman communities. Together with Rosemary-Claire Collard and Jessica Dempsey, Sundberg wrote the „Manifesto for Abundant Futures.“ We met Juanita on Skype  to talk about thoughts they develop in this manifesto, and her critique on Post-Humanist theory.

SONIC FABULATIONS

YNK #1 Nýey by Islands Songs (remix)

Evolving around the motifs of creation, colonization, and metamorphosis of a territory, Nýey takes the island of Surtsey at its core. Having emerged off the coast of Iceland in 1963, Surtsey has been closed to the public since its birth. As the youngest member of the Westman Archipelago, the island can be seen as a window into the past of the older islands. Reciprocally, these older islands are windows into what Surtsey might be like in the future. Inspired by this approach of the island as a sort of 'time capsule,' Nýey investigates into Surtsey's assumed past, present and possible future.

Originally produced by Deutschlandradio Kultur / Klangkunst with the support of Du côté des ondes, Phonurgia Nova and the Surtsey Research Society. The piece was published by the Belgian label Unfathomless in 2015.

YNK #5 Singing Microbes and other Spirits by Island Songs in collaboration with César E. Giraldo Herrera (live)

César E. Giraldo Herrera is a Colombian Biologist and Anthropologist currently based in Oxford, where he is a Victoria Maltby Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College.  This Fabulation is based on thoughts he develops in his soon to be published book with the preliminary title "Microbes and other spirits: Crossroads of microbiology and Amerindian shamanism". Giraldo Herrera’s research intertwines biocultural and ethnohistorical approaches and demonstrates how the microbial world is within the reach of human perception and how shamanic practices optimise and articulate these experiences. Herrera elaborates critically on ethnographic theory and will show how animist/perspectivist ontologies are consistent with microbial ecology.

YNK #10  They own the night by Islands Songs in collaboration with David Mollin and Salomé Voegelin

David Mollin and Salomé Voegelin, both lecturers in Sound Arts at the London College of Communication, work together in a practice that focusses on invisible connections, transient behavior, and unseen rituals. For YNK they wrote and performed a text representing their engagement with the possibility of form, that of animals, their depiction and classification, and that of the voice that seeks to capture them but remains itself fleeting. This text is interwoven with a composition by Islands Songs, that departs from sounds by the Ocean Networks Canada, an initiative of the University of Victoria and union of ocean observatories.

YNK #20 Non a l‘ours, non a la bourse, non a la course by Olivier Lapert

The French artist Olivier Lapert tells us about Cannelle, the last female brown bear native to the Pyrenees.

BLASTED LANDSCAPES / ABUNDANT FUTURES

YNK #4 Live set by Islands Songs with sounds from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network Australia

YNK #9 Lecture and Sounds

Coqui frogs, alien trees and the colonial history of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. With an extract of the book "The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation" by Fred Pearce and sounds by the Biologist Marconi Campos Cerqueira from the University of Puerto Rico.

YNK #12 Live set by Islands Songs with sounds from the Ocean Networks Canada, an initiative of the University of Victoria and union of ocean observatories

YNK #17 A conversation with Juno Salazar Parreñas & live set by Islands Songs

Juno Salazar Parreñas is an Assistant Professor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University. Her research speaks to feminist science studies, environmental humanities, critical development studies, and global political economy. Currently, she is working on her first book with the title "Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilitation." In it, she examines the question of how to live in the face of species loss and environmental displacement.

FIELD STUDY

YNK #6 Solega Song Cycles, a listening session with Samira Agnihotri

"Nothing makes me more contented than walking a forest with a mike and recorder." Samira Agnihotri is a Wildlife Biologist based in Bangalore, studying the birds of the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT) in southern Karnataka, India, where she is currently pursuing Greater Racket-tailed drongos. Those birds cohabit with the Solega people, whit whom Samira collaborates for her research since many years. In this YNK capsule we will listen to and talk about recordings made by Samira Agnihotri and by the linguist Aung Si, with whom she has written an article about Solega Ethno-Ornithology in 2012.

YNK #11 How Corals Think by Yannick Dauby

How Corals Think is a long-term project by the the French born and Taiwan based sound artist and musician Yannick Dauby. The porject is based on underwater recordings of the coral reefs around the Taiwanese Penghu archipelago, that Yannick visits since about twelve years. Its first chapter was a sound installation, shown earlier this year at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. The second incarnation of the project premiers on YNK.

YNK #16 All Depends on the Sun by Islands Songs

Since ancient times historical writings, scientific reports, and indigenous myths have reported audible sounds that accompany the northern lights. Recent studies suggest that these sounds occur during geomagnetic storms and most likely do not originate from the visual aurora. Nonetheless, the existence of these sounds has always been controversial. Driven by the words of those who have encountered and/or studied aurora related sounds, All Depends on the Sun delves into this phenomenon and opens wider reflections on sound and listening.

The piece was originally produced by the Creative Audio Unit of the national Australian radio broadcaster ABC, for Soundproof.

YNK #19 Walking with Bisons by Islands Songs in collaboration with Iégor Reznikoff

Iégor Reznikoff, Professor emeritus at the Philosophy Department of the University of Paris X (Nanterre), has worked in many fields related to sound, music and acoustic archaeology. His work — encompassing architectural and corporal resonance, sound therapy, ethnomusicology, and ancient music practices — is credited with helping to create new concepts and approaches in sound anthropology. Amongst other things, he has worked extensively on resonance in Palaeolithic caves and caverns.

Walking with Bisons follows Iégor Reznikoff into the cave of Arcy in Burgundy, France, exploring natural resonances of painted caves and prehistoric rituals. The sound material stems in parts from Rockethouse Productions (Matt Thompson & David Hendy). The piece is followed by a collaborative sounding out of SAVVY's physical and radiophonic space together with Alberto de Campo and Hannes Hoelzl.

ELECTRONIC ANIMISM

YNK's Electronic Animism" chapter explores animated imaginaries of fellow musicians and sound artist. All shows are performed live from the SAVVY Funk studio in Berlin-Wedding. 

YNK #3 Echoes as Messengers by Yannick Dauby (played live by Islands Songs)

Echoes as Messengers is an originally quadrophonic piece by the French-born and Taiwan-based sound artist Yannick Dauby. In it, he explores the echolocation of bats, more concretely the ultrasonic voices of the Japanese House Bat, that he recorded in Taipei in 2015 and transformed with the help of analog electronics and digital processing. For YNK Islands Songs interpretated Echoes as Messengers and played it live from the SAVVY Funk studio.

YNK #8 Interspecies Crosstalk by Andrew Pekler (live set)

Interspecies Crosstalk is an improvisational piece by the musician and sound artist Andrew Pekler. His music and sound work is an experiment with found materials, be they samples, instruments or genre conventions. In Interspecies Crosstalk Pekler departs from insects sounds from South-East Asia. Those sounds we received from Rohini Balakrishnan, ecologist and professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where she works on animal behaviour and acoustic communication.

YNK #13 Fortune Biscuit by Tomoko Sauvage (live set)

Fortune Biscuit is an improvisational piece by the Japanese musician Tomoko Sauvage. For many years, Sauvage has been investigating the sound and visual properties of water in different states, as well as those of ceramics, combined with electronics.

YNK #15 Native Instrument (Stine Janvin Motland & Felicity Mangan) (live set)

Native Instrument is a sound collaboration bringing together the found field-recordings archive of Felicity Mangan and the abstract vocabulary of Stíne Janvin Motland. Mixing natural rhythms of birdcalls and bug beats with digital effects and vocal imitations, Native Instrument enlighten a sonic ambiguity between rural nature, electronics, and the human voice. Their live set departs from sound putted at our disposal by TERN, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network Australia.

Special thanks to: Cédrick Anglaret - forever jingle; Philippe Charriot - forever mix; Nicolas Meunier - forever graphism; Katharina Wallisch - forever support and production at large;

YNK is produced with the support of the Cultural Fund of Südtirol.