Interference Acts: Performances Along the Threshold of the Human and Nonhuman.

This paper focuses on moments of interference and collision between animals, technologies, infrastructures and environments. News reports of such entanglements are on the rise: a shark bites an Internet cable, an eagle brings down a drone, ants short circuit ventilation units. As physical systems become increasingly obfuscated through the myth of the “cloud”, what do such couplings reveal about the complexity of geopolitical networks? How might collisions of the human and nonhuman help to illuminate perspectives relating to environmental justice, agency and rights? What type of aesthetical context is required in order to comprehend such noisy transmissions?

I introduce the term “Interference Act” as a way of discussing such moments of entanglement. Interference acts encourage complex readings of sites and the technologies, animals and practices bound into them. Focusing on listening throughout the essay I do not wish to essentialize sound, but rather affirm there are other senses, modalities and representations beyond the visual at stake within the context of anthropogenic change, and to specifically highlight noise as a material that matters.

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