A desolated landscape stretches outward from Zurich: burned earth, scorched fields. The sun is mercilessly bright. The intense light implies an unbearable heat. Mountains on the horizon. Above, a blue sky without clouds; below, brownish desert-like soil, nearly devoid of vegetation. I hear the permanent, menacing presence of a military drone. Danger is often felt through the ears first. I listen. The drone’s sound is continuous and moving around the space at a low altitude: a rich low-end static, dense with spectral harmonics, like a thick cluster of frequencies slowly turning in the sky. I cannot locate it precisely, yet that sound is so familiar.
There used to be birds in this place not so long ago. Their intricate, modulating patterns once characterized this peri-urban environment where the biosphere was still heard. Bird sounds are now only memories.
Blending with the sustained presence of the drone comes another distant rumour: an insistent low-end crescendo, electrical engines revealing a swarm of high hisses that progressively invade the acoustic space. I can see the private company trucks as they approach in close formation. Gunshots.
As I slowly zoom out from the screen wall, the voices of visitors in the gallery space take me back into the grey concrete room. An installation of multiple loudspeakers delivers an immersive assemblage of an overwhelming wall of sound: the drone, the trucks, and the dry, discontinuous mechanical sound of machine guns. A burst of white noise grows louder and saturates the space, with piercing siren-like glissandi. The noise continues, as the screens turn pitch black. I cannot differentiate the textures anymore. Is the sound coming from the loudspeakers or from the gallery space? The overwhelming shudder of an explosion. Infra-bass blasting. Tinnitus ringing. What are these sounds saying?
Echoes & the Politics of Listening in the Arts to be released in a non-linear future
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It might produce a potentiality for haunting resonance
plasticity resounding
A place for sonic imaginations?
A corridor of affecting frequencies?
Feed/back?
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sonic hauntology. the traces in these tapes. hiss. a dusty and grainy texture. the echo as an amplifier of the politics of sound.
is it past, future, or present?
sound boucing back and forth across different temporalities. it happened a long time ago. real to reel.
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MULTIPLE a publication at the intersections of sound studies, experimental writing and artistic collaboration.
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Selected publications:
"Echoing Opacity: Unsettling the Theory-Practice Divide", in: Arting, Praktische Kunstphilosophie, Ed. by Elke Bippus & Anke Haarman, forthcoming 2026
"Collective Attunements: Listening Against the Matrix of Domination" with Oxana Ivanova-Chessex, in: Hidden Heartache, Ed. by Simone Keller, Frauenfeld, Facetten 21, 2024
"Mattin: Social Dissonance" in: Rue Descartes numéro 102, Paris, Collège International de Philosophie, 2023
"Echoing the Unheard" in: Echakhch, Latifa, The Concert: Catalogue of the Swiss Pavillon's exhibition at the Venice Biennale, London, Sternberg Press, 2022
"Visual Culture Studies" with Sigrid Adorf, in: Handbuch Kunstphilosophie, Ed. by Siegmund, Judith, Bielefeld, transkript, 2022
"Listen! Eine Publikation als Ausstellung" with Patrick Müller, Zurich, Zurich University of the Arts, 2022
"In Conversation with Salomé Voegelin", in: Multiple, numéro deux, Zurich, éditions du désordre, 2021
"Blizzard & Dragons", in: Wind Tunnel Buletin no 13, Ed. by Dombois, Florian, Zurich, Zurich University of the Arts, 2021
"L'oreille cassée", in: Figuren dazwischen. Zurich, Zurich University of the Arts, 2020
“Bruit psycho-actif, Rudolf Eb.er”, in: Revue et Corrigée 120, Nota Bene, Paris, 2019
"Editions Coulures 1 with Laure Marville", Renens, Atelier Obscur, 2019
“Vers d’autres minimalismes sonores aujourd’hui”, in: Magazine du Grand Théâtre de Genève. Genève, GTG Publication, 2019
"Echo/Cide". In: Eklekto Magazine Publication, Geneva, 2018
"Unfolding the Margins", Zurich, éditions du désordre, 2018
"Multiple, numéro un", Zurich, éditions du désordre, 2018
“Thinking a Sonic World”, in: Kritik: eine Publikation als Ausstellung. Zurich, Zurich University of the Arts, 2017
"Multiple, numéro zero". Zurich, éditions du désordre, 2016
“What is Noise?”, in: Noise in and as Music. Ed. by Cassidy, Aaron and Einbond, Aaron. Huddersfield, University of Huddersfield Press, 2013
"Entretien par Jérôme Noetinger, in: Revue et Corrigée 82, Nota Bene, Paris, 2009
