Sounding Inaudible Voices: Reimagining the Link between Musical Aesthetics and Politics in Contemporary Culture

Recently, the debate surrounding the relationship between politics and art has resurfaced with vibrancy. Philosophers, critical theorists and artists have reinvigorated this discussion with new and radical propositions. Prominent theorists like Jaques Rancière (The Politics of Aesthetics, 2004, Aisthesis, 2013, etc.), Alain Badiou (Handbook of Inaesthetics, 2005) and Gabriel Rockhill (Radical History and The Politics of Art, 2014) have contributed to this renewed interest in the subject by academic and art institutions – as evidenced by many recent publications, conferences and talks organised by prominent art departments and institutions as well as by the launch of new academic programmes dedicated to the subject (for example, the MA in Art & Politics at Goldsmith College in 2009). However, these questions have not surfaced in music practice and scholarship quite as prominently. The reason perhaps has to do with the fact that most of these propositions do not usually address the subject of music and the interconnections between music and politics. Sounding Inaudible Voices is a research project that aims at rethinking and reimagining the link between music aesthetics and politics in contemporary culture. It does so through a combination of creative practice and academic writing. The project includes creating a set of compositions and performances that deal with the interconnections between music and politics and interrogate the methods and strategies by which music can express politics. This research also includes the publication of academic articles in the areas of musical aesthetics, musicology, composition and music technology. The research outputs therefore will be varied and include scores, a published album, audio/visual documentation of performances, software libraries, published articles and conference presentations.