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?
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-445288 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Tawaifi, Anjel |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Konstvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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