Sound as memorial: Case study of the use of sound to mediate complex traumatic memory

Whilst testimony has been studied in a variety of disciplinary fields the relevance of sound as a means of enabling testimony has been under-researched, and is also a significant but under recognised strand in current sound art practice. This paper presents the outcomes of a project to research, realise and publicly stage a sonic performance environment inspired by the complex memories of the town Vasilishok, a Jewish shtetl in Belarus erased by the Nazi’s in 1942.

The work with trauma, memory and reconciliation which is the central aim of this project takes place through a carefully staged series of sonic encounters between musical practices stemming from the German tradition and the Jewish practice of Cantillation, both of which create or memorialise a sonic territory. The differences between the 19th century German tradition, using cadence, sequence and modulation to suggest an organic whole, and the Jewish practice of Cantillation in which sound-shapes are used as a way of imprinting the memory of a text, is significant and is reflected in the way that notation is constructed in both these practices.

My work responds to the pressures created by these differing forms of audio representation, and the history to which they testify, exploring possible positions between these cultures. In doing so it creates a critical connection between a practice which asserts territory and one which memorialises a lost territory; between a Germanic culture that attempted total colonisation and a Jewish culture that was nearly erased by it.

The infrastructure of the performances is mobile, influenced by the Talmudic concept of the sukkah, and allows transitory locations to become the site for the memorial. The themes of the piece are in direct dialogue with those of the conference - not only in terms of the subject matter, but also the questions of how to stage such work, and the curatorial and institutional structures which support it.

Further information about the piece is here "Scored Out" https://www.craft.do/s/uJHp0eCcUU59eX

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