Topographies of Hearing: Bonds

Composer and computer musician Jessica Ekomane bases her work on the synthesis between contrasts and the questioning of cultural and social preconceptions. As part of “Topographies of Hearing”, her work “Bonds” serves as an intervention in public spaces. It uses the chimes in the Tiergarten near the House of World Cultures and the Parochial Church. The original function of these representative sound landmarks, to announce the time of day, is counteracted in public space by altering our perception of time, both collectively and individually. Ekomane’s work provides inspiration for individual affects and social dynamics that go beyond the aesthetic experience, prompting an examination of listening habits and their underlying social structures.

“Topographies of Hearing” is a series of sound installations, concerts and durational compositions commissioned by MaerzMusik that pose questions about immersive listening encounters and the ways they are experienced beyond concert halls and performance spaces. The festival has invited Audrey Chen, Hugo Esquinca, Christina Kubisch, Jessica Ekomane and Miya Masaoka to create site-specific sound art in the MaerzMusik Library at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, at the Akademie der Künste, at SAVVY Contemporary and at other locations in Berlin. These works deal with acoustic images and scenographies of the ear, examining the relationship between audience and environment. Through live concerts and performances that happen either spontaneously or at fixed times throughout the festival, they accompany MaerzMusik as immersive spaces of listening as well as collective experiences that challenge the politics of listening, opposing Western contexts of concert halls and sterile exhibition spaces. Physiological constraints – seated, frontal, contorted – are transformed into new realms of composing and performing music and sound. How can we make our movements resonate? How does the space shape our sound? What sonic imprint do our – human – bodies leave behind? And what can the sounds that came before us tell us about our past as well as choreograph our today and tomorrow?