GRETA//A PLASTIC POEM: An Integrated Approach to the Vibrant Matter of Voice, Deep Listening, and Somatic Movement in Sonic Performance Art as Plastic Activism

Authors

  • Juliana España Keller

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i25.451

Keywords:

sound and noise art, feminist new materialism, deep listening, vibrant matter, social engagement, participatory practices, art and climate action, acoustic ecology

Abstract

Through an analysis of the sonic performance artwork GRETA//A PLASTIC POEM (2020), this paper analyzes why and when participatory art practices can intra-sect and converge with ecologies to imagine posthuman futures and challenge pre-existing structures of thought. From an activist position that considers art and the environment as a participatory collective model, this article argues for a reappraisal of human influence in complex human–non-human interactional systems. More specifically, this text, as a component of GRETA//A PLASTIC POEM, approaches oceanic and sea pollution (notably the dumping of plastics) as a form of environmental degradation that has generated a space inhabited by varied and vibrant forms of matter. In this way, the sea and the sonic space show strikingly similar potentials. In turn, Plastic Activism, which advocates for a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts, is adopted as an underlying ethos and aesthetic response, with single-use plastics being incorporated into the performance artwork itself. Relational to this enquiry is sensing how we use our bodies to explore the potential thousands of distinct material ecologies embodying a sonic performative practice, especially combining the materiality of artistic and political action in public space and focal practices. In this way, the sonic space becomes comparable to a sea of sound, where complex assemblages of matter exist and intra-act to challenge the discordant systems and dynamics in which we are currently entangled.

 

Article received: April 25, 2021; Article accepted: June 21, 2021; Published online: September 15, 2021; Original scholarly paper

Author Biography

Juliana España Keller

Juliana España Keller
Alhaurín el Grande, Málaga, Andalucía
Spain

Juliana España Keller, PhD. takes a lead in producing multi/trans/interdisciplinary works to a listening public addressing all bodies as forms of noise and disruption in the way in which language and communication is made ‘noisy’. Her “Public Kitchen” works have been exhibited in site-specific spaces globally and contribute to histories of sound performance art with a speculative lens on participatory practices in feminist materialist and posthuman theory using the space of the domestic kitchen as the focus. For Juliana, sonic resistance or critical engagement with the world is generated as a feminist politic of consent in the way women collaborate. Juliana seeks to negotiate a woman's place in art institutions and to value a woman's place in society inclusive of non-binary people in this discourse. Juliana holds Canadian, Swiss, British nationalities and currently teaches remotely at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and is currently represented by Casa Amarilla Art Gallery, Malaga.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i25.451 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i25.451

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Published

15.09.2021

How to Cite

España Keller, J. (2021). GRETA//A PLASTIC POEM: An Integrated Approach to the Vibrant Matter of Voice, Deep Listening, and Somatic Movement in Sonic Performance Art as Plastic Activism. AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, (25), 111–128. https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i25.451

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Section

Main Topic: Acoustic and Visual Ecology of Damaged Planet