Listening to complexity

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47456/e40zv353

Keywords:

voice, listening, colonization, heritage, transmission

Abstract

This essay is based on the sound installation I created for the exhibition MUṬIKKAPPAṬĀTA (Nov. 2024 – Jan. 2025) at the RAW Material Company – Center for art, knowledge, and society, as part of the Dakar Biennale. This exhibition is a journey into the intimate territories of Nathalie Vairac (b. 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 and stage her words in the curatorial space. With the help of sound practitioners Deshays and Chattopadhyay, and the pioneering work of composer Amacher, I explore expository strategies for the recorded spoken voice, and specifically the tension between the formal search for non-linearity, and the inherent linearity of listening, ensuring the preservation of meaning.

Author Biography

  • 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.

References

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

CHATTOPADHYAY, Budhaditya. Co-sounding: towards a sonorous land: Venue and Essay. Polyphonic landscapes, Amsterdam, v. 1, n. 1, p. 1-1, 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 may. 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, 2024. p. 1-65.

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 may. 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

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Laetitia Kozlova

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The authors of works submitted to Revista do Colóquio authorize their publication in physical and electronic media, solely for academic purposes, and may be reproduced as long as the source is cited. They attest to their originality, authorship and originality.

How to Cite

KOZLOVA, Laetitia. Listening to complexity. Revista do Colóquio, Vitória, ES, Brasil, v. 15, n. 25, p. 25–37, 2025. DOI: 10.47456/e40zv353. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufes.br/colartes/article/view/48543. Acesso em: 7 feb. 2026.

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