Jasmina Založnik

V iskanju večplastnega življenja:

dekolonizacija prisotnosti

In Search of a Multi_dimensional Life:

Decolonization of Presence



Fotografija /Photo: Sunčan Stone

Ilustracija /Ilustration: Jovana Djukić

Jasmina Založnik

V iskanju

večplastnega

življenja:

dekolonizacija

prisotnosti

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Že bežen pogled v preteklo stoletje razkrije, kako je po izobčenju dialoga življenja začela narekovati ideologija nenehnega napredka in komunikacije. Naša življenja prekinjajo in zaznamujejo gospodarske in naravne katastrofe, neobvladljive podnebne spremembe, pandemije, vse večja prekarnost, osama in imunizacija. Negativne posledice globalizma so skupaj s turbo/nekrokapitalizmom privedle do propada socialne države, enega zadnjih mehanizmov, ki bi namesto enodimenzionalnega življenja sedanjosti, vse bližje robu golega preživetja (Giorgio Agamben ga je imenoval golo življenje), lahko zagotovil zdravo družbeno telo in večplastno življenje.

Kljub ostrim kritikam kapitalizma in številnim oblikam boja, ki se pojavljajo od osemdesetih let 20. stoletja, ko je neoliberalna agenda pokazala svoj pravi obraz – samo spomniti se moramo slovitih besed Margaret Thatcher »Alternative ni.« (TINA), ki so prav v osemdesetih zatresle temelje družbe – se zdi, da si je težje kot kadarkoli, njegovim strašljivim mehanizmom navkljub, predstavljati pot iz kapitalizma.

Ves čas nas opominjajo, da smo nemočni in da ima vsak alternativni poskus kratek rok trajanja. Oblike boja, ki se jih lotevajo aktivisti ali umetniki, bi morali predvideti, jih negovati in razširjati – ne le zato, da ne izgubimo upanja, ampak kot dokaz, da je stvari mogoče spremeniti; da je mogoče spremeniti nas same, druge in posledično svet. Naša odgovornost in dolžnost je, da negujemo vsako možnost za spremembo. Naivno? Morda, čeprav osebne in skupne izkušnje govorijo drugače in nas učijo, da je tudi diskurz lahko nalezljiv. To me spodbuja, da vztrajam v eksperimentalnih, robnih praksah, ki negujejo moje čute, etično držo, vizijo in dejanja. Ena od učinkovitih oblik negovanja telesa, notranjega dialoga in odnosa do okolice (kot Drugega) so (družbeno angažirana) umetniška dela, ki se izvajajo v obliki zvočnih sprehodov. Preden pa se lotim te specifične umetniške in teoretične forme, za katero menim, da lahko naredi razpoko v prostoru-času našega vsakdana in njegovega ritma, bom naredila daljši ovinek in vse skupaj umestila v kontekst.

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Poudariti želim, da namen tega prispevka ni eksaktna znanstvena analiza niti razprava o tehničnem ali analitičnem pristopu do zvočne ekologije. Je samorefleksija o (družbeno angažiranih) umetniških delih v obliki zvočnih sprehodov, ki se namesto z (re)prezentacijo ukvarjajo z izkušnjo in njenim utelešanjem. Pridobljene izkušnje in spoznanja niso povezani le z mojim delom, ampak tudi osebnim interesom. Zanima me, če in kako lahko umetniške prakse senzibilizirajojavnost in s tem okrepijo izginjajočo javno sfero.

PROPAGANDA NAPREDKA: POSPEŠEVANJE, HITROST IN

DIGITALIZACIJA

Sporni prehod v virtualni svet, ki je nov vrhunec dosegel s pandemijo virusa SARS-Cov2 in nedavnimi zaprtji celih držav, bolje razumemo skozi ključne parametre ideologije hitrosti v (post)modernizmu, ki sta jih utemeljila Paul Virilio in Peter Sloterdijk2. Pospešena resničnost, ki je v marsičem posredovana resničnost, je »pomembna mutacija v zgodovini«. Tezo je treba brati in razumeti v kontekstu ugotovitve Hannah Arendt3, ki je v svoji kultni knjigi Izvori totalitarizma zapisala, da »teror pomeni uresničenje zakona gibanja; njegov glavni cilj je omogočiti sili narave ali zgodovine, da prosto vihra skozi človeštvo, pri čemer ga ne ovira nobeno spontano človeško dejanje«4. Ob tem je treba upoštevati še pospeševanje (v kapitalizmu) in opazovati hitrost in simulacijo, ki narekujeta naša življenja.

Z nenehnim pospeševanjem smo v digitalnem svetu dosegli osupljivo hitrost, primerljivo s hitrostjo svetlobe. Zahvaljujoč takojšnji interaktivnosti v pospešeni resničnosti 5 še vedno premikamo »meje sedanjosti, meje človeške misli [ali bolje človeškega bitja] in časa«6.

Družba bi se morala zavedati meja takega pospeševanja, ga zaustaviti ali zavestno izstopiti iz njega, saj je ohranitev večplastnosti in bogastva življenja odvisna od povezanosti in prepletenosti naših življenj z različnimi časovnostmi in kronopolitikami. Z različnimi časovnostmi 6

imam v mislih ciklični čas, ki ga določajo delo /prosti čas, dan in noč, letni časi, spontana srečanja … Cikličnost je postopno nadomestil linearni zakon 24 ur na dan, sedem dni v tednu, ki ga opredeljuje logika sinhronizacije, kjer dialog in spontana srečanja nadomeščajo posredovane komunikacije. Vanjo nas je pognala navezanost in odvisnost od digitaliziranega sveta; prva je poliritmijo že radikalno oklestila v aritmijo. Zato bi moral boj v prihodnje biti osredotočen na politizacijo življenja v njegovi kompleksnosti, tj. večplastnem in dinamičnem prepletanju različnih časovnosti v (porušenem in skrčenem) javnem(ih) prostoru(ih). Skupaj z drugimi svetovi se moramo znova naučiti, kako si prilastiti čas in prostor.

NEGIBNOST

Velja dodati, da propagandna politika hitrosti in napredka ni vstopila samo v mentalno in čustveno družbeno zavest, temveč tudi v kinetiko: naša ne-gibna telesa so priključena na razpršena virtualna komunikacijska omrežja, ki vsiljujejo občutek nenehnega zaostajanja (neodgovorjena e-pošta, neprebrane novice, preveč odprtih zavihkov v brskalniku, (ne)posodobljeni virtualni profili, nezmožnost ohranjanja stikov s kolegi, znanci, partnerji itn.). Še več, navezanost na digitalna omrežja in virtualne svetove ni samo razlog, da ne zmoremo več dohajati informacij, sploščila je tudi našo percepcijo resničnosti. Paul Virilio pojasnjuje: »To neprestano povečevanje hitrosti je [...] povzročilo invalidnost, ker zožuje vidno polje. Hitreje kot gremo, bolj gledamo samo naravnost in izgubljamo lateralni vid. [...] Gre za izgubo vidnega polja in [zmožnosti] predvidevanja, kaj nas zares obdaja«7.

PRISOTNOST IN SEDANJOST

Priprave na novo obdobje so se začele že pred časom, vendar smo spregledali opozorila, ki so se prvič pojavila na prehodu sedemdesetih 7

v osemdeseta leta, predvsem v znamenitem in zelo branem delu Simulaker in simulacija (1981) Jeana Baudrillarda. Med prisotnostjo in sedanjostjo obstaja vrzel, če ne kar nasprotje. Sedanjost simulira prisotnost in uvaja simulacijo oziroma simulaker, če sledimo Baudrillardovi terminologiji. Postala je del naše družbene prakse in z nedavnimi zaprtji dosegla nov razmah. Za razumevanje razlik moramo spet poseči po Baudrillardu in Henriju Lefebvru, ki pojasnjujeta, kako je reprezentacija (kot določena in danes obča prezent(acija)) posredovane resničnosti s »simulacijo in dissimulacijo živega«8začela zagotavljati čas in si ga prilaščati. Prisotnost je tu, v dialogu, v uporabljenem času, v povedanem in narejenem. Sedanjost digitalnega, ki je tam, je

»samo menjava in sprejemanje menjave, zamenjava (sebe in drugega) z izdelkom, simulakrom.«9 V tem pogledu se je treba zavedati, »da je sedanjost dejstvo in rezultat trgovanja, prisotnost pa se umešča v poetiko: v vrednoto, ustvarjanje, položaj v svetu in ne le v odnose menjave.«10

Pandemija je v kontinuumu pospešene resničnosti povzročila zgolj navidezni premik. Omejitve gibanja smo si lajšali s še bolj intenzivno udeležbo na digitalnih platformah in povečano konzumacijo posredovane resničnosti. Dejavnosti, ki so prispevale k heterogenosti in večplastnosti (našega) družbenega življenja – vključno z živo umetnostjo

– so nadomestili mučni približki, preneseni v virtualne svetove.

Preoblikovali smo dele družbenega življenja, ki so bili v preteklosti

»varni« pred digitalizacijo in se jim tako za (ne)določen čas odrekli.

Dialog kot sredstvo spontane, razvijajoče se forme je bil onemogočen, z njim pa tudi možnost za vzajemno bogatitev, učenje, osebno in kolektivno rast, ki sega onkraj jezika in reprezentacije.11 Ljudje smo dialog, dialog in njegova enotnost pa sta, po Martinu Heideggerju, temelj naše tubiti ( Dasein). Človeštvo se na račun lupine odpoveduje telesu in tako izgublja samo sebe.

Nekrokapitalizem je naklonjen plitkosti, izolirani in odtujeni telesnosti, 8

zato nas težnja po razširitvi tehnologije na področja, ki so ji bila tuja, ne sme in ne more presenetiti. Še več, da bi dosegli cilj, tj. pospešeno in plitko resničnost, je bilo treba oklestiti prav polje umetnosti in kulture in ga preoblikovati v njegovo drugost.

Kako izstopiti iz negibnih teles? Kako jih prežeti z življenjem in prisotnostjo? Enega najpreprostejših odgovorov ponujajo odprti, javni prostori: gibanje (samoiniciativno ali s spodbudo drugih), okolica, vključevanje v dialog, oživitev čutov, (ponovno) učenje pozornosti in vzpostavljanje odnosa(ov) z okolico. Obstaja veliko načinov vključevanja v gibanje in odnos. Eden tistih, ki ni bil prepovedan niti med omejitvami, temelji na hoji. Hoja je tudi sestavni del (družbeno angažiranih) umetniških del v obliki zvočnih sprehodov in kot takih forma in platforma, prek katere lahko opazujemo poživljanje naše telesnosti kot odnosnostne, čuteče in čutne celote.

UMETNIŠKO DELO V OBLIKI ZVOČNEGA SPREHODA: HOJA IN

NJENA UPORABA

»Videalnem primeru je hoja stanje, v katerem so um, telo in svet usklajeni, kot trije liki, ki se končno pogovarjajo, trije toni, ki se nenadoma zlijejo v akord. Hoja nam dovoljuje biti v telesih in v svetu, ne da bi nas zaposlovala.«12 Ker pri hoji uporabljamo različne ritme in ker se ti ritmi odražajo v stanju naše biti, v zaznavanju in prisotnosti, nam hoja veliko pove o raznolikosti in razlikah v našem soočanju s seboj in svetom. Še več: s hojo in prek hoje negujemo doživeto izkušnjo prostorskosti, časovnosti, telesnosti in odnosnosti.13 Z drugimi besedami, hoja se nanaša na fenomenološko izkušnjo doživetega prostora, vključno z njegovimi psihološkimi in fiziološkimi razsežnostmi, različnimi tempi in ritmi, raznolikimi in kompleksnimi čutnimi izkušnjami in odnosi do okolice, močjo in pomenom trenutka. V tem pogledu je hoja politično dejanje.

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Ko hodimo počasi (ne-priključeni na družbena in digitalna omrežja), dobimo občutek, da »raztegujemo« čas, da lahko končno normalno dihamo. Pospešena resničnost, ki nas žene, se umakne in končno smo se sposobni soočiti s svetom, ki nas obdaja, saj se »umešča v poetiko: v vrednoto, ustvarjanje, položaj v svetu in ne le v odnose menjave.«14

Vsak sprehod ni nujno zvočni sprehod, vendar osredotočenost na zvok, izlet in namen poslušati svet okrog sebe – vse našteto daje izkušnji hoje nekaj več. Zato priljubljenost zvočnega sprehoda ni nobeno naključje.

Ne le zaradi cenovno bolj ugodne in širši populaciji bolj dostopne tehnologije, ki se uporablja za izvedbo umetniških del v obliki zvočnih sprehodov, ampak ker je tehnologija na nek način izigrala svoje kapitalistično poslanstvo.

Z dostopno in priročno mobilno avdio tehnologijo, s katero je mogoče zajemati in predvajati posneto zvočno okolje, so zvočni sprehodi postali pripravno politično orodje in oblika, ki lahko prispeva k ponovni senzibilizaciji javnosti, negovanju zdravega odnosa do lastne notranjosti in zunanjosti, do znanega in neznanega, do prisotnosti namesto (njenih) podob. Pozornost je ključna beseda za spremembo v procesu komunitarizacije in dekolonozacije. Pozornost, ki je bila v procesu kolonizacije najprej odvzeta ne-človeškim entitetam in kmalu zatem v procesih rasizacije uporabljena za druge, ne-še-človeške entitete. Vrnitev k vednostim starih ljudstev in njihovim pogledom na svet, njihovemu odnosu do narave, do človeških in nečloveških entitet bi morala biti vodilo vsake oblike umetnosti. Kot vidijo svet in (raznovrstna) življenja na njem umetniška dela v obliki zvočnega sprehoda, ki zagotavljajo izjemno izkušnjo sočasnih časovnosti, ritmov različnih teles, skritih in vidnih, sedaj in potem, preteklosti in sedanjosti, tukaj in tam …

Zvočne sprehode lahko hkrati obravnavamo kot metodo in formo, ki jo umetniki in znanstveniki uporabljajo, da bi nas opozorili na okolico in okolje. Kot pravi umetnik Andrew Brown, je zvočni sprehod »mogoče obravnavati kot obliko mapiranja, tako v povezavi s ponavljajočim 10

se poslušanjem, zbiranjem in sestavljanjem zvokov kot tudi v obliki množice ‘živih zemljevidov’, ki jih ustvarijo udeleženci, ko se odzivajo na otipljive ali asociativne značilnosti okolja.«15

Umetniško delo v obliki zvočnega sprehoda je kompozicija različnih vnaprej posnetih zvokov ali zvočnih krajin, ki se lahko prepletajo s pripovedjo. Posneti zvoki so vedno zvoki preteklosti, zato je zvočni sprehod odmev različnih časovnosti, vsaj nedavne preteklosti in sedanjosti posameznega sprehoda. Kot tak omogoča doživetje različnih »časovnosti na domišljijskem in zvočnem potovanju skozi čas; kot posnetki pokrajine in zvočnih krajin, ki se z razvojem tehnologij, skupnosti in družbenih praks neprestano spreminjajo«16. Če je umetniško delo v obliki zvočnega sprehoda prepleteno s pripovedjo, je ta v pesniški obliki in ne v obliki kratke zgodbe ali romana, pripovedovalec pa govori počasi in z dolgimi premori. Z abstraktnostjo in ponavljanjem pusti pripoved prosto pot domišljiji in ne vsiljuje stališč ali zaključkov.

Prav zvočni sprehodi so bili izkušnja, ki me je naučila, kako podaljšati čas, upočasniti korake in se odpreti zunanjemu svetu. Že dolgo tega sem se naučila uživati v tem, da se izgubim v mestu, vsake toliko pogledam navzgor in se zavestno odločim, da bom, kjerkoli in kadarkoli je to mogoče, ubirala različne poti in obiskovala skrite trge in vrtove. Zvočni sprehodi pa so me naučili, da obstaja tudi resničnost, ki je mojim očem skrita, zvočne krajine, melodija vogala, ulice ali mesta.

Naučila sem se poslušati in občudovati tisto, kar se zdi skrito, ker je premajhno ali preveč nežno, da bi to takoj prepoznali. Naučila sem se, da si moram vzeti čas za sprejemanje tega, kar me obdaja, in se nežno dotikati različnih tekstur, na katere nisem niti pomislila. Taka izkušnja nikoli ni samo miselna; četudi je ne moreš priklicati in prevesti v besede in jezik, veš, da je utelešena, še posebej ker ali kadar je celostna.

V nekaterih nedavnih participatornih plesnih performansih sem se naučila, da je tisto, kar dobiš nazaj, vedno povezano s tistim, kar daš, in ko si nekje zares prisoten, z vso svojo prezenco, je utelešena izkušnja bolj ukoreninjena in trajna – če se tega zavedaš ali ne. Odprtost za 11

tisto, kar je, odpira prostor za dialog, verbalen ali neverbalen. Ob doživetju takšne odprtosti moraš biti pripravljen na izzive, časovne omejitve in ozkost našega konstruiranega znanja. V dialogu lahko rastemo – kot posamezniki in kot skupnost oziroma družba.

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1 Poglavje izhaja iz prispevka (in kasnejše objave) za zbornik, ki je nastal ob 56. Borštnikovem srečanju. Daljše in nekoliko predrugačeno besedilo je bilo predstavljeno na mednarodnem simpoziju Društva gledaliških kritikov in teatrologov Slovenije z naslovom Gledališče, ples in performans po COVID-19: Med trenutno pogubo in priložnostmi za prihodnost, ki je bil 22. junija 2021 v Mariboru.

2 Glej Peter Sloterdijk, Evrotaoizem: h kritiki politične kinetike (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva Založba, 2000); Paul Virilio, Hitrost osvoboditve (Ljubljana: Študentska organizacija Univerze v Ljubljani, 1996); Paul Virilio, Speed and Politics: An Essay on Dromology (New York: Semiotext(e), 1977); Paul Virilio, The Information Bomb (London: Verso, 2000); Paul Virilio, T he Administration of Fear (Los Angeles: semitext(e), 2012), et al.

3 Paul Virilio, The Administration of Fear, 33.

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4 Hannah Arendt, Izvori totalitarizma (Ljubljana: Študentska založba, 2003), 560.

5 V zadnjih letih je koncept pospešene resničnosti v humanističnih vedah zasedel pomembno mesto. Benjamin Noys, Mark Fisher, Paul Virilio idr. so razvili drugačne, celo nasprotujoče si poglede na omenjeni koncept.

6 Paul Virilio, The Administration of Fear, 43.

7 Prav tam, 36-37.

8 Henri Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life [trans. Stuart Elden, Gerald Moore] (London, New York: Continuum, 2004), 47. .

9 Prav tam, 47.

10 Prav tam, 47.

11 Več o pomembnosti žive komunikacije in negativnem vplivu tehnologije na posameznika in posledično kolektivno telo v predavanju Nine Power na simpoziju Forming Futures, 1. maj 2021

(pretočno na platformi Vimeo), dostopno na https://vimeo.com/543944074,20. 5. 2021.

12 Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Apple Books.

13 Glej Max Van Manen, Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy (Albany: State University of New York Press: 1990), 106..

14 Henri Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and EverydayLife, 47.

15 Andre Brown, “Soundwalking: Deep Listening and Spatio-Temporal Montage,” Humanities, Vol.

6, Nb. 69 (2017), 4.

16 Prav tam, 6..

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Jasmina Založnik

In Search of a

Multi_dimensional

Life:

Decolonization of

Presence

Fotografja /Photo: Matjaž Rušt

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Only briefly overlooking the last century, it becomes evident how our life became defined by the ideology of constant progress and communication instead of a fertility of dialogue. Our lives are interrupted and defined by economic and natural disasters, wild climate changes, pandemics, increased precarity, solitariness and immunization. The negative consequences of globalism combined with turbo/necrocapitalism have only brought us to the ruins of the welfare state as one of the last mechanisms that could secure a healthy social body embraced by the multidimensionality of life, instead pushing us to the edges of mere survival (defined by Giorgio Agamben’s bare life).

No matter how much harsh criticism of capitalism has been produced, no matter what number of forms of struggles have been initiated since the 1980s when the neoliberal agenda unfolded its true face - we should only remember that it was exactly the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher’s famous statement »There is no alternative« (TINA) shook the ground, it seems harder than ever to imagine a way out of capitalism despite its terrifying mechanisms. We are constantly reminded of the powerlessness and fleetingness of any alternative initiation. However, such struggles initiated by activists or artists should be foreseen, nurtured and extended not only to give hope but rather as a proof of the possibility to change things, to change us, the others and consequently the world. It is our responsibility and obligation to nurture a potential to change. Naive? Maybe, but it is also true that intimate and shared experiences speak differently. And as do our experiences, so the discourse has the energy to become contagious, which is also my intimate reason to persist in experimental, minor practices that nurture my senses, my ethical position, my vision and my action.

One of the potent forms for nurturing our bodies and inner dialogue, and relation toward the surrounding (as the Other), are soundwalks (performances). In order to get to this point, I will make a longer detour through the sketch of contextualization before moving to this specific artistic and scientific form that in my opinion has the potential to produce a crack in the space-time of our daily lives and its rhythm.

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It is necessary to stress that this contribution does not aim to be an exact scientific analysis, it does not focus on a technical or analytical approach to sound ecology, but is a personal self-reflection of soundwalk performances that evade (re)presentation and rather focus on experience and its embodiment. The mentioned experience and excavated insights of the present analysis are fed by my professional occupation and personal interest in a potentiality of art practices to sensitize the public and thereby strengthen the disappearing public sphere.

THE PROPAGANDA OF PROGRESS: ACCELERATION, SPEED AND

DIGITALISATION1

The questionable crossing to the virtual world, which reached a new peak with the pandemic of SARS-Cov2 and recent lock-down(s) could be better understood through the key parameters of the speed ideology in the (post)modernist era as outlined by Paul Virilio and Peter Sloterdijk2. The accelerated reality which in many ways is a mediated reality, is a “significant mutation in history”3 . This thesis should be read and implemented through a significant observation of Hannah Arendt in her iconic book The Origins of Totalitarianism, stating that “terror means the realization of the law of movement; its objective is to enable the force of nature or history to whirl freely through humanity, without being hindered by any spontaneous human act.”4 With this finding, we must also consider the acceleration (in capitalism) and observe the speed and simulation that dictates our lives.

With continuous acceleration we have achieved a staggering speed in the digital world, comparable with the speed of light. With immediate interactivity in the accelerated reality 5 we still move the “boundaries of the present, the boundaries of the human thought [or rather human being] and time”6. Society should be aware of the limits of such acceleration, stop it or consciously step out of it, as the only possibility 18

to preserve the multifacetedness and richness of life is codependent on the connection and intertwining of our lives with different temporalities and chronopolitics. With various temporalities I am referring to cyclic time defined by work/leisure time, day and night, seasons next to spontaneous encounters etc. that have been gradually replaced by the linear law of 24/7, defined by the logic of synchronization, in which we are trapped through attachment and dependence on the digitized world and where a dialogue, spontaneous encounters with others is replaced by mediated communications. The first has already radically devastated multi-rhythm and levelled it into arrhythmicity, which means that further struggle should focus on the politicization of life, understood in its complexity, as a multifaceted and dynamic interplay of different temporalities and in the (ruined and shrunken) public space(s).

With other worlds we have to re-learn to occupy time and space.

IMMOBILITY

It is necessary to add, that the propaganda policy of speed and progress has not only entered the mental and emotional social consciousness, but also our kinetics: our immobile bodies are attached to fragmented virtual communication networks which at the same time impose a feeling of a constant lagging behind (unanswered emails, unread news, too many open tabs in the browser, (non-)upgraded virtual profiles, the inability to stay in contact with a spectrum of colleagues, acquaintances, partners etc.). Even more, the attachment to digital networks and virtual worlds has not only produced the inability to catch up with up-to-date information but also flattened our perception of reality. Screens are, according to Paul Virilio, like “windshields in a car: with increased speed, we lose the sense of lateralization, which is an infirmity in our being in the world, its richness, its relief, its depth of field. [...] There is a loss of the visual field and the anticipation of what really surrounds us.”7

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PRESENCE AND PRESENT

Preparations for a new era were produced for quite a while, but we have ignored the warnings that appeared already in the transition of the seventies to the eighties, especially with the famous and widely readable Simulacra and Simulation (1981) by Jean Baudrillard.

There is a gap, if not even an opposition between presence and the present. The present simulates presence and introduces simulation or the simulacrum, to follow Baudrillard terminology. It has become part of our social practice, reaching a new swing within the recent lock down(s). Understanding these differences, we have to further follow Baudrillard and Henri Lefebvre, showing how the representation (as a certain and today common present(ation)) of mediated reality started to furnish and occupy time by “simulating and dis-simulating the living.”8 But presence is not held in the image, as the present, presence exists in dialogue, the use of time, speech and action, while with the present, which exists in the digital, “there is only exchange and the acceptance of exchange, of the displacement (of the self and the other) by a product, by a simulacrum.”9 In that regard, one should be aware that “[t]he present is a fact and an effect of commerce; while presence situates itself in the poetic: value, creation, situation in the world and not only in the relations of exchange.” 10

With the pandemic, only an apparent shift in the continuum of accelerated reality has occurred. We have eased the movement restrictions by intensifying our attendances on digital platforms and increased consummation of the mediated reality. The activities that contributed to the heterogeneity and multifaceted nature of (our) social life – including live artistic practices – have been replaced by swallowed approximations transmitted to the virtual worlds. With transforming parts of social life which had been alien to transmission in the past, we abandoned them for a(n) (in)definite period of time.

In this way, as already emphasized, we have disabled dialogue as a 20

means of a spontaneous, evolving form, mutual enrichment, learning, as well as personal and collective growth that extends beyond language and representation.11 Since we are dialogue, and as dialogue and its unity underlie our Dasein, to recall Martin Heidegger, with such shifts humanity is losing itself and transforming into something that transgresses body into a shell.

Since necrocapitalism is in favor of shallowness, an isolated and alienated physicality, the tendency to extend technology to fields that have been alien to it must not and cannot surprise us. Moreover, in order to achieve the objective of the accelerated and shallow reality, it was necessary to truncate exactly the art and culture field, and transform it into its otherness.

How to get out of our immobile bodies? How to infuse our bodies with life and presence? One of the simplest answers can be found in open spaces, in public, by moving and being moved by others, by the surroundings, engaged in a form of dialogue and through resurrection of our senses, through re-learning to be alert, to embrace relation(s) with the surroundings. Although there are many ways to engage oneself in movement and relation, the appropriate form that was possible to practice even during restrictions is based on walking. Walking is also an integral part of soundwalking (performances) and as such a form and a platform through which we can observe vitalization of our corporeality as relational, as sensitive and as sensible all-together.

WALKING AND ITS USAGE IN SOUNDWALK (PERFORMANCES)

“Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord. Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the world without being made busy by them.”12 However we apply various rhythms in our walks and we 21

apply these rhythms to our state of being, perceiving and presences, walking tells us a lot about the varieties and differences in which we are encountering ourselves and the world. Even more, with and through walking we are nurturing the lived experience of spatiality, temporality, corporeality and relationality.13 In other words, walking references our phenomenological experience of lived space, including its psychological and physiological dimensions, its various tempos and rhythms, our diverse and complex sensorial experiences and the relations toward our surroundings, the potency of the moment and importance of the instant. In that regard, the walk is a political act.

When we walk slowly (without the attachments to social and digital networks), we get the feeling that we are ‘stretching’ time, that we finally can breathe normally, the accelerated reality by which we are driven steps aside, and we are finally capable of encountering the world that surrounds us. It is an urge to be present when walking to really encounter the world, since “presence situates itself in the poetic: value, creation, situation in the world and not only in the relations of exchange.”14

Although not every walk is necessarily a soundwalk, the focus on the sound with its excursion and purpose of listening to the environment can add to the experience of the walk. Therefore, it is not an accident that the soundwalk has gained in popularity, not only because the technology that is used for soundwalks has become more affordable and therefore accessible for a larger population, but the technology used for soundwalks (performances) has somehow hacked its capitalistic purpose.

With rather affordable, handy mobile audio technology that both captures and replays an auditory environment, soundwalks have become a handy political tool and a form that can help resensitise the public, nurture a healthy relationship toward one’s inside and outside, of the known and unknown, of presences instead of images.

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Attentiveness is a key word for a shift to be created in the process of communitarization and decolonization. The attentiveness that has first been in the process of colonization taken away from non-human entities, and soon after applied further to other not-yet-humans through the processes of racialization. Returning to indigenous knowledges and their world-views,their relation to nature, human and non-human entities should therefore be a leading perspective of every art form. It is highly embraced in the form of the soundwalk, providing us with an exceptional experience of juxtaposed temporalities, of various bodies’

rhythms, hidden and visible, of now and then, of past and present, of here and there etc.

Soundwalks can at the same time be considered as a method and a form used by artists and scientists to make us alert to the surroundings, to the environment. As the artist Andrew Brown acknowledges, the soundwalk “can be considered as a form of mapping exercise, both in relation to the reiterative process of listening to, gathering and assembling sounds, but also in the form of the plethora of ‘live maps’

created by participants, responding to both the tangible and associative features of the environment.” 15

The soundwalk (performances) could be created by various pre-recorded sounds or soundscapes, which can be, as well, intertwined with the narration. The recorded sounds are always from the past which makes a soundwalk composed of various temporalities, at least juxtaposing the recent past and present time of each walk. This enables us to navigate these different “temporalities and to imaginatively and sonically travel through time, functioning as snapshots of forever-changing land and soundscapes, through evolving technologies, communities, and social practices.”16 If the soundwalk performance includes the narrative, it is that narrator who speaks slowly, focuses on longer pauses, and that the narration is composed as a form of poetry instead of a short story or a novel. With abstraction, repetition, the story opens up toward the imagination, instead of enforcing a clear 23

statement and conclusions.

It is exactly soundwalks that have given me the experience of valuing extending time, slowing down my steps and opening up myself toward the outside. I learned to enjoy being lost in the city long ago, to turn my gaze upwards from time to time, consciously deciding to use different paths and enter the hidden squares and gardens, wherever and whenever possible, however with the soundwalk I learned there is a whole new reality that is hidden from my view, the soundscapes, the melody of the corner, street or the city, I learned to listen and admire what seems to be hidden as it is too small or too delicate to be acknowledged right away. I learned to take time to embrace what is there, to gently touch various textures that I rarely thought of. Such experience is never only mental, even if you cannot recall and translate the experience into words and language, you know it is embodied, especially since or when it is holistic. With some recent participatory dance performances, I learned that what you get back is always in relation to what you give, and when you are somewhere really present with your entire presence the embodied experience is more grounded and lasting, whether you are aware or unaware of it. The openness toward what is there opens up a space for a dialogue no matter if it is based on language or some other senses. Experiencing such openings, one should be prepared for the challenges, acceptance of temporal limitations and narrowness of our constructed knowledge, as in dialogue we can grow, individually and as a community/society.

______

1This chapter was already used and published in Borštnik Almanah. It was originally developed for the International symposium organized by the Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia, entitled Theater, Dance and Performance after COVID-19: Between Current Doom and Opportunities for the Future, and held in Maribor on June, 22 2021.

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2 See Peter Sloterdijk, Evrotaoizem: h kritiki politične kinetike (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva Založba, 2000); Paul Virilio, Hitrost osvoboditve (Ljubljana: Študentska organizacija Univerze v Ljubljani, 1996); Paul Virilio, Speed and Politics: An Essay on Dromology (New York: Semiotext(e), 1977); Paul Virilio, The Information Bomb (London: Verso, 2000); Paul Virilio, The Administration of Fear (Los Angeles: semitext(e), 2012), et al.

3 Paul Virilio, The Administration of Fear, 33.

4 Hannah Arendt, Izvori totalitarizma (Ljubljana: Študentska založba, 2003), 560.

5 The concept of the accelerated reality has taken an important place in the humanities in recent years. Benjamin Noys, Mark Fisher and Paul Virilio, among others, have developed different, even contradictory views on this concept.

6 Paul Virilio, The Administration of Fear, 43.

7 Ibid. 37.

8Henri Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and EverydayLife [trans. Stuart Elden, Gerald Moore] (London, New York: Continuum, 2004), 47.

9Ibid. 47.

10Ibid. 47.

11On the importance of live communication and the negative impact of technology on the individual and therefore the collective body, see Nina Power’s lecture at the Forming Futures Symposium, May 1, 2021 (streaming through the Vimeo platform), available at https://vimeo.

com/543944074, 20. 5. 2021.

12 Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Apple Books.

13 See Max Van Manen, Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy (Albany: State University of New York Press: 1990), 106.

14 Henri Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and EverydayLife, 47.

15 Andre Brown, “Soundwalking: Deep Listening and Spatio-Temporal Montage,” Humanities, Vol.

6, Nb. 69 (2017), 4.

16 Ibid. 6.

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In Search of a Multi_dimensional Life: Decolonization of Presence Text: Jasmina Založnik

English proofreading: Jana Jevtović

Slovene translating and editing: Melita Silič Design: Irena Pivka

Ilustration: Jovana Djukič

Photo of Sandbox workshop: Matjaž Rušt

Cover photo: Sunčan Stone

Publisher: Cona, zavod za procesiranje sodobne umetnosti, Ljubljana, 2023

Book collection: Steklenik 2020/21 / 4

Digital edition

Not for sale

Text written for the Sound Walk City prelude festival, as part of the Acoustic Commons project.

Festival organisation: Irena Pivka, Katarina Radaljac, Andrew Stuck, Geert Vermeire, Babak Fakhamzadeh Festival production: Cona, zavod za procesiranje sodobne umetnosti, 2020

www.cona.si

www.steklenik.si

www.walklistencreate.org

CONE promme supported by Municipality City of Ljubljana, culture department, gallery Steklenik supported by Ministrstry of Culture RS.

The Acoustic Commons project is supported by the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia and the Creative Europe program.

Made available in pdf format at publikacije.steklenik.si, on 1 January 2023.

© CONA 2021. All rights reserved.

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Steklenik gostuje v rastlinjaku Tivoli Cesta 27. aprila, Ljubljana

Kataložni zapis o publikaciji (CIP) pripravili v Narodni in univerzitetni knjižnici v Ljubljani COBISS.SI-ID 139076099

ISBN 978-961-92677-9-0 (PDF)

V iskanju večplastnega življenja: dekolonizacija prisotnosti Besedilo: Jasmina Založnik

Angleška lektura: Jana Jevtović

Prevod v slovenščino in lektura: Melita Silič Oblikovanje zvezka: Irena Pivka

Ilustracija: Jovana Djukič

Fotografije iz geolokacijske predstave Peskovnik: Matjaž Rušt Fotografija naslovnice: Sunčan Stone

Izdala: Cona, zavod za procesiranje sodobne umetnosti, v Ljubljani, 2023

Soorganizacija: Muzej sodobne umetnosti Metelkova Knjižna zbirka: Steklenik 2020/21 / 4

Digitalna izdaja

Ni naprodaj

Teoretično besedilo za festival Sound Walk City prelude, ki je del projekta Accoustic Commons.

Organizacija festivala: Irena Pivka, Katarina Radaljac, Andrew Stuck, Geert Vermeire, Babak Fakhamzadeh.

Produkcija festivala v Ljubljani: Cona, zavod za procesiranje sodobne umetnosti, 2021.

www.cona.si

www.steklenik.si

www.walklistencreate.org

Program CONE podpia Mestna občina Ljubljana, oddelek za kulturo, projekt Steklenik podpira Ministrstvo za kulturo RS. Projekt Akustično skupno podpirata Ministrstvo za javno upravo RS in program Ustvarjalna Evropa.

Dano na voljo v formatu pdf na publikacije.steklenik.si, dne 1. 1. 2023.

© CONA 2021. Vse pravice pridržane.

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