dear [          ]

you are patient. there is so much to do – fixing broken cables, cisterns, toilets, servers, no time is found to read / to write.

Fri 21 July 2023 11:22:40

thank you for staying up / out / on – for keeping an ear out in the night / day / crepuscular half-light from civil twilight to marine twilight to astronomical twilight [1]

through all these phases, your presence is felt – more, rather than less, if anything, as the degree of declension increases / decreases – as light falling lessens [2]

it is also something, however, in any case – allerdings [3] – to stay in the bright light of day as the soundworld fills with traffic and your ears grow tired. the labor of listening extends to the middle of the day (mchana)

you stand by the water pump or you lean against a tree stem. you try position[s] to support your back, perhaps. your back is supple and strong or perhaps your back troubles you. you have to accommodate it it is not at your disposal. one person turns flick-flacks around another, passing in and out of the sun / shade.

it is difficult to specify the conditions of survival / resistance / revolt. each situation is different. means are not evenly distributed or made use of. on the other hand, freedom has to do with a surplus that is added. it is not [exclusively] to do with a surplus that is granted / available / left over / excess. it is taken. it has to do with the removal or suspension of the need to be accountable for everything. it can be bolted on, tacked on as an extra flick, twist, mark or amount of material. it can be seized. that is why freedom crops up in surprising places and not in others where you are expecting it to be present and it isn t.

to take acoustics as a research framework [4] implies, among other things, to think along the signal chain from where sounds propagate to where they are heard, and the patterns those signal chains form – those ecologies of transmission [5]

this is not just a question of cables and wireless connections. it can include eg the way birds carry song materials up and down the latitudes. it encompasses forms of contact / contagion / contamination where sounds come into being together and encounter each other. but the forms of equipment are also important: whether you are dealing with a server or peer-to-peer typology establishes patterns for communication which it may be actually impossible to disrupt without changing the hard- and softwares that convey the signals. cp streets, walls and boundaries in relation to commoning / the commons.

writing does not appear easily, always. it can encounter blocks all along the line of transmission, so it arrives late, lagged, de synched from its surroundings, out of phase. acoustic labor includes the work of transmission, distribution, networking, but it does not obviate the need to gather, wait and receive. reception is not a given. to become receptive is both to study actively and to acquire a kind of openness, which may arise from the disappointment of some other plans.

toward[s] a non-intentional space [6]

Notes

[1] Kate Donovan (Radio otherwise), Monaí de Paula Antunes (Archipel Stations). Reading as part of Spree~Channelse Radio Group. Transmission 15–16 July 2023 from the spitz barge Madorcha.

[2] Civil twilight is the brightest of the 3 twilight phases. The Sun is just below the horizon, so there is generally enough natural light to carry out most outdoor activities. Civil twlight begins / ends in the instant when the geometric center of the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon
Nautical twilight is the second twilight phase. Both the horizon and the brighter stars are usually visible at this time, making it possible to navigate at sea.
Astronomical twilight is the darkest of the 3 twilight phases. It is the earliest stage of dawn in the morning and the last stage of dusk in the evening.

[3] Monaí de Paula Antunes. Spree~Channelsea Radio Group conversation.

[4] Brandon LaBelle. Speaking at the Listening Academy. Kingston University. 20 July 2023. Organised by Lucia Farinati and Brandon LaBelle.

[5] Anna Friz: Writing commissioned with NAISA for Reveil 2015. https://soundtent.org/2015/streams/streams_2015_UTC-5_toronto_anna_friz.html Also: https://soundstudiesblog.com/2014/11/06/someplaces-radio-art-transmission-ecology-and-chicagos-radius/ https://nicelittlestatic.com/2021/02/16/transmission-ecologies/.

[6] Hu Fang: Towards a Non-Intentional Space Vol.1. About Sou Fujimoto's Architectual Design for Mirrored Gardens. Essays by Hu Fang. The Pavilion, Beijing. Koening Books, London. 2016 p39.