Hearkening #4

Hearkening is a four-evening series hosted by Dreamsong that pairs short film screenings with live music performances. These combinations bring artists and works into a dialogue that traverses themes, regions and forms to encourage a broader process of listening. Not limited to the sonic, this approach to listening includes visual, somatic and imaginal registers, and involves an opening toward and sharing oneself with another. The term hearkening is used by the writer Lawrence Kramer to describe the kind of attention that turns listening into a transformational act, both for the sounding subject and for the listener. “When we hearken to a sound we engage in a movement toward a beyond, an elsewhere, and one that can never be fully attained. This drift is our means of belonging to the world.” (Lawrence Kramer, The Hum of the World). The series is co-organized by Andy Graydon and Luke Martin.

Program 4 features two new compositions by Max Wanderman followed by the augmented sound work Expedition Content by Ernst Karel and Veronika Kusumaryati.

An immersive marvel of sonic ethnography, Expedition Content draws on audio recordings made by recent college graduate and Standard Oil heir Michael Rockefeller as part of the so-called Harvard-Peabody Expedition to Netherlands New Guinea in 1961 to study the indigenous Hubula (also known as Dani) people. In their nearly imageless film, Karel and Kusumaryati document the strange encounter between the expedition and the Hubula people. The work explores and upends the power dynamics between anthropologist and subject, between image and sound, and turns the whole ethnographic project on its head.

The Harvard Peabody Expedition shaped the American understanding of Papuans and American foreign policy toward the region until today. The Expedition made intensive use of audiovisual technology, including 37 hours of Michael Rockefeller’s audio recordings. It became one of the most well-documented studies of a single area in the world and its influence reached a wider audience outside the confines of academia. The Expedition is also famous for the controversial disappearance of Michael Clark Rockefeller (1938-1961) in New Guinea, three months after this expedition took place.

Max Wanderman is a Minneapolis based composer, sound artist, and performer. His music has been performed by the Ecce Ensemble, the Ros|Car duo, and percussionist Kevin Good. He has been commissioned by the New Century Players, the American Pianist Association, and the Louisville Ballet. He has also received awards from the American Harp Society-Los Angeles, and the California Electronic Music Exchange Commission.

Max studied at the California Institute of the Arts and Butler University where he earned an MFA and BM in music composition respectively. His primary teachers have been Michael Pisaro, Anne LeBaron, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Frank Felice, and Michael Schelle. He has also participated in masterclasses with Yehudi Wyner and Toshio Hosokawa.