Introductory Soliloquy

Abstract

After Copenhagen (Chattopadhyay, B. (2017). “Autolistening”. In Francis, Richard (ed.), Exercises in Listening issue 3. Auckland, New Zealand: End of the Alphabet Records), Berlin (Chattopadhyay, B. (2021). “Howl Redux: On Noisific(a)tion”. In Mandic, M (ed.), Law and the Senses: Hear. London: University of Westminster Press (in press)), Den Haag (Chattopadhyay, B. (2021). Unrecording Nature, in Kuljuntausta, Petri (ed.), Sound, Art, and Climate Change. Helsinki: Frequency Association) and Kolkata (Chattopadhyay, B. (2021). ”Co-listening”, in The Listening Reader. Berlin: Errant Bodies Press), artist Budhaditya Chattopadhyay once again meets researcher Budhaditya Chattopadhyay on a roofless balcony in Beirut adjacent to the working office-room of the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows at the Center for Arts and Humanities, American University of Beirut campus. The bright blue and scorching sunny skyline merge with the deep turquoise of the Mediterranean Sea. Cutting across the skyline, a long cargo ship passes carrying endless cartons of whatnot goods. Its pace as seen from the balcony resembles the passing of the clouds. The horseshoe-like coastline is crowded with visiting footsteps that can be imagined from this empty balcony while the water splashing on water is faintly audible. Artist Chattopadhyay engages in a dialogue with researcher Chattopadhyay about his current work—a collection of scholarly interviews with artists and sound practitioners from the Global South. They converse within the lively noises of Beirut and respond to the city with distinct grains of the voice. In between their conversation, the sun goes down and a surveillance helicopter hovers over the urban landscape to decipher the meaning of the day. The thoughtful pauses in their conversation hold the smell of gunpowder.