Detail from Ultra-Martian landscape painted by Hélène Smith.
Blog

Appendix 012


24 Jul 2020

Appendix unpacks references, influences and themes from the week’s online programme and announcements. A Saturday digest of sound, video and written content from across the internet; Appendix is a digital reading, watching and listening list for the extra-curious.

i.) Read: Speaking Martian by Daniel Rosenberg via CABINET
An insight into the 19th century French medium, Hélène Smith, whose séances brought about trances that transported her to the planet Mars, remarkably enabling her to speak and write the Martian language. 
 
Jenna Sutela’s audio-visual work nimiia cétiï, this week’s PAUSE feature, documents the interactions between audio recordings of Hélène Smith’s early Martian language, a neural network, and footage of the movements of space bacteria, using machine learning to generate a new form of communication. In Sutela’s work, the computer is a shaman of the modern days, a medium, articulating messages from entities that cannot otherwise speak. 

 

ii.) Watch: Revolution is not a one-time event via Silver Press
Addressing conversations around police abolition in this week’s Long Read, curator in residence Tabitha Thorlu-Bagura points to Silver Press’ online programme of talks that sees activists, academics and artists reflect on abolitionist praxis and thought exploring convergences with gender, poetry, technology, performance, speculation, aesthetics, film and culture. Events will run each Monday in August.

iii.) Watch: Hailing Frequencies Open – Sonya Dyer 
Earlier this week, Studios resident Sonya Dyer broadcast a new work for the fourth event in our I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now (Live) series. The latest iteration of her Hailing Frequencies Open project, Dyer's live stream event reflected possibilities of Black futurity in the form of a broadcast from the future, transmitted via the Andromeda Galaxy. Watch Sonya discuss Hailing Frequencies Open at a public presentation for the Center for Afrofuturist Studies for more on the ongoing project.  

iv.) Read: What Does “Experimental Music” Even Mean Anymore? by Adam Harper via The Fader
What is experimental music and what does it want from us? Musicologist and music critic Adam Harper traces a new wave of electronic adventurers in the techno-mediated spaces and tense modernities of the 2010s. For this Sunday’s Deep Listen, we revisit Adam Harper’s talk for Somerset House Studios series Sound Salon, in which he discusses post-internet sounds and how the internet - and new technology more broadly - is shaping music. 

A photo of Loraine James performing

v.) Listen: Hyperdub’s Loraine James in 10 Records for Hyponik
Our mix of the week comes from Sonic Terrains artist in residence Loraine James. Get to know the records that influenced her sound identity and musical growth - pulling from Squarepusher, Lusine, Limp Bizkit and more.