Listening to complexity

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47456/ars3jv42

Keywords:

voice, listening, colonization, inheritance, transmission

Abstract

This text is based on the sound installation I created for the exhibition MUṬIKKAPPAṬĀTA (Nov. 2024 – Jan. 2025), at RAW Material Company – Center for art, knowledge, and society, as part of the Dakar Biennial. This exhibition is a journey through the intimate territories of Nathalie Vairac (1972- ). The artist, based in Senegal, born in France to a Guadeloupean father and an Indian mother, traces her ancestry and confronts colonization. Back in her homeland, she writes and records. Vairac invited me to listen to and stage her words in the exhibition space. With the help of sound professionals Deshays and Chattopadhyay, and the pioneering work of composer Amacher, I explore exhibition strategies for the recorded spoken voice, specifically the tension between the formal quest for non-linearity and the linearity inherent in listening to the voice, ensuring the preservation of meaning.

Author Biographies

  • Laetitia Kozlova, CITAR - UCP, Porto

    PhD candidate in Science and Technology of the Arts at the Catholic University of Portugal (CITAR - UCP, Porto). She is interested in new practices of listening to recorded spoken voices, at the intersection of sound studies, performing arts and cultural heritage sciences. Her research project is supported by the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and is being developed on two continents, Europe and Africa. She is the founder of Mémoires Sonores [Sound Memories], a production structure that advocates the writing of sound and places the voice as a living, sensitive and collective memory.

  • Rodrigo Hipólito, LabArtes/PPGA-UFES/FAPES

    PhD student in Art and Culture from the Postgraduate Program in Arts at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (PPGA-UFES), Master in Theory and History of Art (PPGA-UFES) and Bachelor in Fine Arts from the same institution; Professor at the Department of Theory of Art and Music (DTAM-UFES, 2015-2020), at the Department of Social Communication (DEPCOM-UFES, 2023-) of the Pedagogy and Psychology courses at the European Faculty of Vitória (FAEV, 2015-2023). FAPES scholarship holder.

References

AMACHER, Maryanne; OUZOUNIAN, Gascia. Cambridge Companion to Women Composers: Vibrations: Women in Sound Art, 1980-2000. 1. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 272-273, 2024.

CHATTOPADHYAY, Budhaditya. Co-sounding: towards a sonorous land: Venue and Essay. Polyphonic landscapes, Amsterdam, v. 1, n. 1, out. 2023. Disponível em: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2191720/2191719. Acesso em: 9 mai. 2025.

DESHAYS, Daniel. Libertés d’écoute: Le son, véhicule de la relation. 1. ed. Paris: MF, 2023.

RAW MATERIAL COMPANY. MUṬIKKAPPAṬĀTA, by Nathalie Vairac, 10/11/2024-!3/01/2025, RAW Material Company, Center for art, knowledge and society. Disponível em: http://www.rawmaterialcompany.org/_4492. Acesso em: 9 mai. 2025.

SCHAEFFER, Pierre. Traité des objets musicaux: Essai Interdisciplines. 1. ed. Paris: Seuil, 1966.

VAIRAC, Nathalie. MUṬIKKAPPAṬĀTA: Exhibition Booklet. 1. Ed. Dakar: RAW Material Company, pp. 1-65, 2024.

YOUTUBE. Performance Nathalie Vairac (10 november 2024). Disponível em: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wz5Xzw39D8&list=PLCVLC3VY8SnrRSynFsB1Gxs3ZBagFkRvi&index=2&t=2s. Acesso em: 9 mai. 2025.

YOUTUBE. Exhibition View. Disponível em: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dW-tU1-wic.

Acesso em: 9 may. 2025.

Título da revista em preto, sobre fundo com recorte da imagem da obra de Chris Coutinho, "Névoa". A imagem mostra uma ilustração de tronco de árvore com barco ao fundo. A ilustração é feita em camadas semi transparentes de papel manteiga e tecido voal, o que torna as cores e formas enevoadas.

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Published

27-06-2025

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 25 (2025)

Section

Translations

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Laetitia Kozlova; Rodrigo Hipólito

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How to Cite

KOZLOVA, Laetitia. Listening to complexity. Revista do Colóquio, Vitória, ES, Brasil, v. 15, n. 25, p. 278–289, 2025. DOI: 10.47456/ars3jv42. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufes.br/colartes/article/view/48997. Acesso em: 27 feb. 2026.