The aim of this essay is to study the political and aesthetical qualities in Lawrence Abu Hamdans sound piece. In Saydnaya (the missing 19db) former detainees from the infamous Syrian prison Saydnaya are interviewed about the many sounds, silences and emotions that circulated in the prison. Since they were kept in total darkness during their stay in Saydnaya, their memories and impressions are sonic. The piece can therefore be called a sonic testimony and the detainees are referred to as earwitnesses. The methodological framework of this study is outlined by Salomé Voegelin in her book Listening to Noise and Silence. In the core of this method lies the notion of deep listening (also called sonic sensibility). From listening noise and silence naturally unfold. In order to define and discover the affects of the artwork and its sonic material, the theoretical work of Gilles Deleuze, Brian Massumi and Sara Ahmed is applied. More specifically the concepts of lines of flight and affect. Emotions and sound seem to blend in the most peculiar ways. This essay is just a suggestion of how that blend might look... or should I say sound? And most importantly this essay will investigate how these non-visual forces work, stick and flow. How they can be used and what they produce. Some of the questions that this essay will touch upon are: what are the sonic affects that this artwork produces? And how does the artist use noise and silence in the construction of Saydnaya?

In this essay, The Politics of Sound on the Stage of Art. The Political Potential of Sound in Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Saydnaya (the Missing 19dB), the aesthetical tensions between sound, art and politics are explored. The aim of this study is to examine the conditions and configurations of the perceptibility of sound within artistic contexts, and the political implications positioned therein. The inquiry is based on the ways in which sound is produced, theorized and negotiated in the sound installation Saydnaya (the Missing 19dB) by the artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan. This is conducted by analyzing the political problem of the whisper, as it is framed within the artwork, in correlation to Jacques Rancière’s notion of the voice as a division of phone and logos, as well as Brandon LaBelle’s concept of sonic agency. The essay also compares Earwitness Testimony to Rancière’s discussion of the sensorium of art, in order to examine the aesthetical conditions of the experience of art. I argue that sound entails different modes of perceptibility, due to its material conditions, and that it renegotiates visual representation within the conditions of the artistic scene. / Denna uppsats, Sonisk politik på konstens scen. Ljudets politiska potential i Lawrence Abu Hamdans ljudinstallation Saydnaya (the Missing 19dB), behandlar brytpunkterna mellan ljud, konst, och politik. Med utgångspunkt i gestaltningarna och tematiseringarna av ljud i Lawrence Abu Hamdans ljudinstallation Saydnaya (the Missing 19dB) syftar uppsatsen till att undersöka ljudets estetiska möjligheter och politiska implikationer. Detta görs genom en analys av den politiska potentialen i viskningen, såsom den gestaltas i verket, utifrån Rancières idé om rösten som uppdelad i läte och språk, samt Brandon LaBelles begrepp sonisk agens. Därtill undersöks öronvittnesmålets roll i relationen mellan konst och politik, utifrån Rancières idé om sensorium under konstens estetiska regim. Uppsatsen visar på hur ljudets materiella förutsättningar omförhandlar och problematiserar visuell representation, samt hur det inrättar en egen akustisk sfär genom vilken politik kan uppstå.