Constellations

This Mystery Box has been mixed by Ariana Martinez.

It’s composed from sounds recorded by: Jess Shane, Miyuki Jokiranta, Anouk Hannan, Mike Williams, Ayesha Barmania, Adair Sheppard and Isaac Arnquist.

To hear these sounds in their entirety, click here. ***

Constellations is a community of listeners, investigating the world through sound.

The mix engineer is MM.

The graphics are designed by JS.

For more sounds from Constellations, visit out website: https://constellationssounds.org/

This episode of Constellations we speak with artist and writer jamilah malika abu-bakareabout Aural Alterities, an online exhibition curated by abu-bakare. Aural Alterities is a collection of works by 8 sound artists, which suggest dimensions and possibilities for working in sound outside of formal or canonical of the medium. All of these artists are Black, Indigenous or POC Chilean.

This episode is primarily an interview with abu-bakare, alongside excerpts from the exhibition. We strongly recommend you listen and take in these works in their online format here: auralalterities.com

Aural Alterities works:

- “sending a message to you” by Adee Roberson - “Speaking into Existence” by Aj McClennon - “Audible Rising” by Allah George - “L2BW2” by jamilah malika abu-bakare - “ALL OF ME” by Jessica Karuhanga - “FIGHT ME” by Kim Ninkuru - “only workers” by RUTMEAT - “Detenidxs Desparecidxs” by Soledad Fatima Muñoz

Referenced reading: The Combahee River Collective Statement Art Papers, Interview: David Hammons Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Animals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Further reading: Aural Alterities “On Listening” page: auralalterities.com/on-listening

Trick & treat. You know where we've been 😉

Constellations returns with some 🪄😈✨🧨 very soon.

Lonely Artefacts is a podcast series about regional Australian museums by Sisters Akousmatica for Constellations. Lonely Artefact #2 takes you to the Waratah Museum in Waratah north west lutruwita-Tasmania. From Sisters Akousmatica: “I visited in 2010 and the museum experience stayed with me, as it was so obviously a labour of love and community service. In fact it was probably the original inspiration for this series.” Sisters Akousmatica pay respect to the Palawa people as the traditional and ongoing custodians of Lutruwita and to elders past, present and future, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. https://www.constellationsaudio.com/sounds

Energy usage and sound are two omnipresent components of our daily life. We're constantly trying to weigh our own wants and complications against individual sacrifices and the perceived "difference" our actions can make. And of course, as with much of existence, many things can be true at once. Featuring: "i don't think its my place" by Sophia Steinert-Evoy "Forest to Desert" by Sarah Boothroyd https://www.constellationsaudio.com/sounds

Language is inextricably linked to land. In this episode, we explore how the shifts in the landscape have impacted language across generations and cultures. Featuring: “Translation (a prayer)” by John Isaiah Edward Hill “During the drought the road is dry” by Bartosz Panek John Isaiah Edward Hill is writing a poem to the generations passed and the generations to come in the Oneida language that’s been threatened by settler colonial violence. In their piece “Translation (a prayer)”, we hear two voices: the English voice which is static and unmoving, and the Oneida voice, which moves in a counter-clockwise motion, representative of traditional Haudenosaunee dance practices. ~ In Poland, drought has wrecked havoc on the landscape. 2019 was the hottest year on record in Poland, and it’s affecting their entire way of life from water, the soil, food and energy prices. These shifts have meant a shift in the language used to describe water, heat and dryness. In Bartosz Panek’s piece “During the drought the road is dry” he explores how old words are being given a new context alongside the changing climate. Transcript for “During the drought the road is dry” is below. [8:49 - 9:00] During the drought the road is dry. [9:10 - 9:15] During the drought the road is dry. [9:20 - 9:25] During the drought the road is dry. [9:34 - 9:34] Can you see the drought? [9:34 - 9:54] So you know... in a place like this it will be seen there... Take a look there, where's upper: dryness has just been appeared. So it’s visible. If the whole area, the grass here, is burned by the sky, it’s obvious there’s the drought. [10:03 - 10:33] Nope! It's not so bad now. In my backyard I have a garden with some vegetables and it was visible You just need to dig your finger into the soil and you know if it’s dry or humid. So when the vegetation started inMay and June, there was a kind of crisis. But not now. [11:50 - 11:59] Damn deckchair. The drought exhorted great havoc. Raspberry season is almost over… [14:20 - 14:39] Sasha is treading down a dry road,
He can hardly walk, that’s a forebode.
The heat is pouring out of the sky,
During the drought the road is dry. [24:09 - 24:17] Dry across, dry out, dry over, dry totally…

Ft. “American Ghosts” by Erica Huang and “Bob Hope No Hope” by Jenn Stanley. The act of recording has impacted how we perceive and understand time. Recording’s byproduct, whether by sound, video, photo etc, is an artifact of the past, a moment of space and time captured and archived. For this episode of Constellations, we asked two artists, Erica Huang and Jenn Stanley to reflect on how they consider time, its relationship with recorded artifacts and the significance of the archive. We asked them: How might our conception of what an ‘artifact’ is be sonically unraveled?

Voicing was produced and composed by Mara Schwerdtfeger The piece is an interweaving abstract conversation exploring the concept of voice through a series of four sound elements. The deconstructable nature of the piece allows for multiple forms of expression to be heard both as individual voices and together as an active cohesion of sound. We encourage you to visit our website to play with these different voices – voice, viola, environments and sound objects – in your own time. We’ve got each of the separate voices listed there, so you can hear they interact, relate, and reflect back on each other within your own sonic environment. Play with them how you like. constellationsaudio.com/sounds

This episode of constellations we’re mapping ourselves, from the outside in. Relax your need to understand everything and listen to yourself, your body, loosen the need to analyze. Featuring: “Necropolis 2: Cruise Control” by Kamikaze Jones “A Sound Poem” by Axel Kacoutié and “Necropolis 3: Planet of the Gapes” by Kamikaze Jones. Axel writes: “We are wrong to look for uniformity and objectivity. We have all mapped associations to what our subjective experience is like. My experience of the colour red is different from yours. Our brains light up the same way when hearing water but our relationship to its sounds will never be the same. Because of this, I wanted to illustrate how I've mapped mine using abstract terms like solitude, sunbathing, patricide etc. All as an attempt to say, "you don't have to understand, I just want to connect and have you see (listen) how I relate to the world." — “Necropolis 2: Cruise Control” —> This piece is composed from Grindr chats, sex toy Yelp reviews, and hold music from gay phone-sex hotlines. It imagines a queer hauntological underworld mediated by the technologies of yesteryear. “Necropolis 3: Planet of the Gapes” —> This piece is a more meditative, cosmic manifestation of the Queer Necropolis, and is comprised entirely of acoustic instruments played with a vibrating butt plug. Kamikaze writes: “My original intention was to create an immersive sonic environment that was representative of the darker, more infernal channels of the collective queer subconscious. My work as a performance artist and extended technique vocalist over the past year has been focused on explorations of queer madness, and supernatural manifestations of queer erotic identity. My objective was to create a mythological sonic territory that addressed the sublimated ghosts and demons of our shared history. I quickly realized the boundaries of my own subjectivity in the compositional process and, embracing the queer art of failure, realized that the project would undergo a kind of conceptual mitosis, splitting into two separate but distinct companion pieces, each radical interpretations of what a “Queer Necropolis” could sound like. (for more, head to our website) constellationsaudio.com/sounds

What do eyes sound like? Does a spider’s abdomen sound furry or crunchy? How much sameness do I share with a cardinal? A mouse? Or the mold in the corners of my bathroom?... I should clean my bathroom? In BASIC INGREDIENTS we’re into objects - both seemingly inanimate and living - to reconsider our relationship to the spaces that surround us. Featuring: "Dust Meditation” by Clare Dolan "Fork, Knife, Lid" by Kim Hiorthøy “The Land Owns Us” by Nishant Singh