Precarious Sounds // Sounding Sanctuary

Wednesday, Feb 7, 2018

NYU Music Department Conference

February 16-17, 2018
Keynote address: Prof. Josh Kun, University of Southern California
Credit: @missTANGQ / www.misstangq.com. Find out more at http://visionsfromtheinside.tumblr.com

Credit: @missTANGQ / www.misstangq.com. Find out more at http://visionsfromtheinside.tumblr.com

What can sound-makers and -thinkers tell us about the role of music, sound, and silence in struggles against precarity and in the creation of sanctuary?

Precarious Sounds // Sounding Sanctuary, hosted by NYU’s FAS Music Department, will unfold over two days of panels, performances, and multimedia installations.

Featured events include a Friday afternoon keynote by Prof. Josh Kun (University of Southern California) about his work with music and housing justice in San Francisco and a multimedia exhibit in NYU Bobst Library’s Avery Fisher Center.

Eighteen presenters discuss colonial legacies of a naval base in the Philippines, soundscapes of precarity on the streets of Cuba, mediation of struggles in a French refugee camp, listening practices across the Mexico-U.S. border, the political potentials of sonic blackness, and silence as tool of oppression or nurturing refuge.

Over twenty composers, performers, and installation artists explore precarity and sanctuary through chamber pieces, found objects and sonic technologies, and participatory performances highlighting themes including ecosystems in danger, the limits of the human body, America’s history of enslavement, the surveillance state, and memory as precarity and sanctuary.