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Sonic Interventions

Intervening Arts - Freie Universität Berlin

A podcast about the poetics of sound and its power to disrupt norms and transform society. Each episode presents conversations with musicians, sound artists, visual artists and theatre-makers, with a special ear for postcolonial and/or queer sonic possibilities. Season 1 (Feb-April 2023) was launched for Black History Month with a focus on New York and Chicago. Season 2 (Sep-Oct 2023) features artists based in Berlin, Paris, and Yogyakarta. Season 3 showcased South African voices and sounds (Feb-March 2024) and Season 4 (May-July 2024) Polish artists, activists and curators. Our new season starting in January 2026 focuses on interventions in Germany by Black, African and Afro-diasporic artists.
A project conceived by Dr. Layla Zami for the Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste) and the Performance Studies Department (Institut für Theaterwissenschaft) at Freie Universität Berlin.
Special thanks: P&T Knitwear Bookstore and Podcast Studio, Blueprint Studio Johannesburg
Co-produced by Eufoniker Audioproduktion

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  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 32 min
  • English

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  • Oct 27, 2023 · 23 min

    Resounding Rhythms

    Season 2 closes with a conversation between Victoria Pham and Emma Lo. Victoria Pham introduces us to the many intersections of her work as an evolutionary biologist and artist. The conversation focuses on rhythm and listening in Pham’s research and practices, and Pham's and James Nguyen's open source project RE:SOUNDING. In conversation with Victoria Pham Victoria Pham is an Australian artist, evolutionary biologist, writer and composer. She is based between Paris and Sydney. Originally trained as an archaeologist, she is a current PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, St John's College. As an evolutionary biologist and archaeologist, her specialisation is in bioacoustics, the evolution of sound-signalling and acoustic mapping technologies. Victoria has worked with several international museums and institutions such as the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and has conducted solo fieldwork around the world. Her artistic practice is driven by explorations into the sonic connections across nature; practices of decolonisation and listening deeply. The hallmark of her interdisciplinary practice is her belief that a partnership with Nature is fundamental, and that Nature is a collaborator to her design, research and sound-based work. Victoria continues to pursue her work in biodesign through research into bioacoustics and mycology which inform the cross-form approaches that structure her creative process. This is emblematic in 2023 when she founded biodesign and acoustic ecology studio, EARTHLY FUTURES, based in Paris, France. Website Instagram SoundCloud Youtube Vimeo Check out the RE:SOUNDING Đông Sơn Drums STEMS Dong Son Archive Credits Sounds Bronze Echoes (Victoria Pham) La Grotte (Victoria Pham) Terra (Victoria Pham) Medium Mallet (RE:SOUNDING) Photos Cover (Domesticus Venus, Installation Image in KINGS Gallery 2022. Film, Video and Sculpture by Pham. Image by Aaron Claringbold) Portrait of Victoria Pham (Pham presenting for TERRA MonoPoly By Liquid Architecture 2022) Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Moderator Emma Lo, PhD researcher in Theater Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion

  • Oct 13, 2023 · 22 min

    Voice Machines

    This episode features Rully Shabara, an experimental vocalist based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Emma Lo talks with him about Xhabarabot Voice Machines, an ongoing project in which Shabara engineers interactive instruments from his own vocal samples. They discuss issues of consent in sampling, appropriation and self-exploitation, and open source technologies. In conversation with Rully Shabara Rully Shabara born in Palu, Indonesia, is interested in exploring human voice as a medium of creation, and language as a subject to experiment with. Shabara has initiated numerous concept-based projects around voice, for instance navigating vocal range, textures, and spirituality in his project Senyawa (with Wukir Suriyadi), or developing a conceptual language-driven band project Zoo. He has delivered workshops around the globe, which focus on using the human voice as a rich resource to explore primal expression and improvisations. Shabara has collaborated with many notable international musicians and artists such as Keiji Haino, Stephen O`Malley, Otomo Yoshihide, Rabih Beaini, Damo Suzuki, Bob Ostertag, Yoshida Tatsuya, Trevor Dunn, Arrington DeDionyso, Justin Vernon, Jon Sass, DJ Sniff, Daisuke Fuwa, Greg Fox, and many more. Website Instagram @rshabara Xhabarabot Voice Machines Credits Recording Yusuf Alazhar Sounds Drone (Emma Lo playing Xhabarabot Voice Machines) Drux (Emma Lo playing Xhabarabot Voice Machines) Ambiex (Emma Lo playing Xhabarabot Voice Machines) Delax (Emma Lo playing Xhabarabot Voice Machines) Overparty (Emma Lo playing Xhabarabot Voice Machines) Delax (Emma Lo playing Xhabarabot Voice Machines) Ambiex (Emma Lo playing Xhabarabot Voice Machines) Photos Cover, Rully Shabara performing (Ravyna Jassani) Portrait of Rully Shabara (Bartek Muracki) Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Moderator Emma Lo, PhD researcher in Theater Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion

  • Sep 29, 2023 · 35 min

    Vocal dis/obedience

    This episodes features Anjeline de Dios, a philipino cultural geographer and vocal artist. Emma Lo will talk with her about voices, disobedience, well-being, and sonic conceptions of space. They will engage with how voices are shaped and how to connect with one’s own voice. In conversation with Anjeline de Dios Anjeline de Dios is a cultural geographer and vocal performer creating and studying emergent spaces of sound, healing, and change. She previously worked in academia as a university professor of cultural studies, and in systems-led innovation as a strategic researcher. Currently, she is an independent researcher, performing artist, meditation and systems-change facilitator, and consulting divination practitioner. The projects she sustains with collaborators in arts and wellness communities are fed by her purpose of creating curious, welcoming musical spaces. Her contemplative practice aims at helping people to listen better to the life within and beyond themselves. Website Soundcloud @notesfromashes Thesis “Western Music By Its Others” Credits Sounds Ikaw ay Akin (Anjeline de Dios) Underwater vigil (Anjeline de Dios) Emptied dawn (Anjeline de Dios) Horde (Anjeline de Dios) Photos Portrait of Anjeline de Dios (EJ Mijares) Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Moderator Emma Lo, PhD researcher in Theater Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion

  • Sep 15, 2023 · 29 min

    Archival silences

    The new season of Sonic Interventions engages with Asian (diasporic) perspectives and opens with a conversation of Prof. Dr. Doris Kolesch, Dr. Layla Zami, and Emma Lo with artist-scholar Dr. meLê yamomo. In this first episode, they discuss sonic relationalities and archival practices. Learn more about his work, such as 'Echoing Europe’, the Decolonial Frequencies Festival, and DeCoSEAS. In conversation with meLê yamomo meLê yamomo is an Assistant Professor of New Dramaturgies, Media Cultures, Artistic Research, and Decoloniality and author of Sounding Modernities: Theatre and Music in Manila and the Asia Pacific, 1869-1946 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). He is the co-project leader and principal investigator of the European Joint Programming Initiative Cultural Heritage (JPICH) project Decolonizing Southeast Asian Archives (DeCoSEAS), and laureate of the »Veni Innovation Grant« (2017-2022) funded by the Dutch Research Organization (NWO) for the project »Sonic Entanglements: Listening to Modernities in Southeast Asian Sound Recordings« (2017-2022). meLê is the winner of the Open Ear Award, the most prestigious composer’s prize in the Netherlands, and one of the 2020 KNAW Early Career Awardee by the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also currently a member of the Amsterdam Young Academy. meLê is also resident artist at Theater Ballhaus Naunynstrasse where his creations Echoing Europe, sonus, and Forces of Overtones are on repertoire. meLê also curates the Decolonial Frequences Festival and hosts the Sonic Entanglements podcast. In his works as artist-scholar, meLê engages the topics of sonic migrations, queer aesthetics, and post/de-colonial acoustemologies. Website Decolonial Frequencies Festival Echoing Europe DeCOSEAS Sounding Modernities Credits Sounds Recording of the Philippine Constabulary band, 1910 (USCB Cylinder Audio Archive) Wax cylinder recording of Oggayam sung by Perfecto Balagani, recorded by Jeno von Takacs in Kalingga, Philippines 1934 (Berliner Phonogrammarchiv) Sri Margana listening and singing along with Raden Mas Jodjana (Berliner Lautarchiv) Photos Cover, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse and Zé de Paiva Portrait, meLê yamomo Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Moderator Emma Lo, PhD researcher in Theater Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts](https://www.sfb-intervenierende-kuenste.de/en/)) (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion

  • Feb 15, 2023 · 32 min

    Sounds of Rest

    Najee & Erika Harper at Weeksville Heritage Center

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