In this lecture Chattopadhyay will reflect on the distinctive sound worlds of what is termed the “Global South.” Grounded in an auto-ethnographic method of self-reflective engagement with leading sound practitioners from South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, the talk navigates across various trajectories of sound practices, illuminating intricate sonic processes of listening, thinking through sounds, ideating, exposing, and performing with sound media. The lecture invites for critical reflection on aural cultures, sound theory and production in arenas of the “Souths”, beyond the Eurocentric field of sound studies and listening-based arts practices. Chattopadhyay will also unpack historical moments of intercultural exchanges between Europe and the ‘non-West’ to build a ground-up approach of nurturing knowledges on the encounters between aural cultures and transmission of sonic aesthesis between Global Norths and Souths, on an equitable and non-hierarchical ground of mutual exchange beyond a predominant colonial lens of othering. The talk aims to reveal a tension between the West’s predominant colonial-extractive-consumptive cultures, and the collective desires of Global Souths’ arts practitioners to resist colonial models of listening, by expressing themselves in terms of their arts and craft, and their critical faculties.  

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is a contemporary artist, researcher, and writer. Chattopadhyay produces works for large-scale installations and live performance addressing contemporary issues of environment and ecology, migration, race, and decoloniality. His works have been widely exhibited, performed, or presented, across the globe. Chattopadhyay has an expansive body of scholarly publications in artistic research, media theory and aesthetics in leading peer-reviewed journals and is the author of four books: The Nomadic Listener (2020), The Auditory Setting (2021), Between the Headphones (2021), and Sound Practices in the Global South (2022). He holds a PhD in Artistic Research and Sound Studies from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, and is currently a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Art Academy (KMD), University of Bergen. Web: https://budhaditya.org/ 

Monday Lectures is a public platform combining invited guest lecturers and professors and researchers of the faculty at KMD. Monday Lectures aim to create a diverse programme of lectures exploring a wide range of disciplines and research topics. Lectures typically take place Mondays 10:00 at the Knut Knaus Auditorium and are free and open to all.