Soundings: Protest|Politics|Dissent explores how artists navigate the depths of sound experience.

In January and February 2017, the Power Plant Gallery at Duke University presented ‘Soundings: Protest|Politics|Dissent‘, a broadcast audio exhibition exploring how artists navigate the depths of sound experience and embody protest, politics, and dissent in digital sound files.

As part of the exhibition, a special Third Friday Durham Listening Session, called, ‘The Body and Queer Listening’, was held on February 17, 2017 featuring works curated by filmmaker, sound artist, and MFA|EDA alumni Mendal Polish.

“This year in review is harrowing and painful to even reflect upon, though it is also a synthesis of stories about healing, resilience, and survival,” Polish said.

“This is where we begin. More than ever in my lifetime, it has felt like a necessary moment to bring queer artists together to celebrate our lives, to grieve, to honor where and who we come from as individuals and an intersectional people.”

Here, protest, politics, and dissent are embodied in digital sound files. Broadcasted, they defy the transient nature of sound – only inasmuch as a single file can be replayed. Through repetition something happens.

Does one really hear the same thing twice?

From podcast to experimental audio, each artist captured, molded, manipulated, mediated, or composed sound into a document. The works embrace environment|climate change, diaspora|e/im/migration, incarceration|torture, and memory|trauma, deepening auditory perceptions.

Featured Artists include: Mendal Diane Polish, Rin Johnson, Nova McGiffert, Jessica White, Sylvia Herbold, Owen Taylor, Sen Garcia, Althea Baird, Lynn Casper

Track 11 “I A(ffir)M” produced by lynn casper
affirmations from dani hoffpauir, marino bennedetto, jey rd, erin manning, corey jones
music by lynn casper