Sat, 1st Feb 2025
14:00
radialsystem Saal
free entrance
Tulnic: A Mediator Between Oral Traditions, Authority, the Performing Arts and the Reproduction of Gender Relations
Dragoș Rusu (University of Bucharest, RO)
This proposal aims to scrutinise the Tulnic, a woodwind instrument found only in the Apuseni Mountain region in Romania and used in the past as a communication tool, in order to argue that any cultural practice is in constant motion and can be continuously transformed through technological means.
In 2019 I participated in a project within the Europalia Arts Romania festival in Belgium. The project involved the creation of an ensemble of Tulnicărese (women from the Avram Iancu commune in Alba County who play the Tulnic), the composition of an electronic piece by Milan W. that incorporated traditional songs and signals, and the production of two shows by the resulting ensemble in Belgium.
To illustrate how the nationalist discourse of traditions is also reflected in Tulnic culture, I apply Hobsbawm’s concept of invented traditions. Many traditions that »claim to be old are often quite recent and sometimes invented« (Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1992) consciously by historical actors who are often identifiable. What are the implications and outcomes of transforming invented traditions into performing arts through experimental means? The risks relate to the perpetuation of colonial and hegemonic practices, where an entity at the centre borrows and transforms cultural features of an entity located at the semi-periphery. Since the centre cannot exist without the periphery, these risks can turn into opportunities when power dynamics are overturned through a process of translation and decentralisation.
Dragoş Rusu is a researcher in the field of sonic studies and anthropology of sound, and has been present in Bucharest’s alternative music scene for more than 15 years. He is a sound explorer with a keen interest in the materiality of sound and ethnographic field recordings, and a DJ, producer, and writer with a background in journalism and anthropology. He is the co-founder and editor in chief of the magazine and cultural platform The Attic. Dragoş was the co-founder, artistic director, and curator of the acclaimed Outernational Days festival from 2016 to 2020.
Homecoming
Nilufer Musaeva (Hochschule für Künste Bremen, DE)
Homecoming is an artistic-ethnographic project about my heritage and relationship to the village of Khinalug, located in north Azerbaijan, and which is home to an indigenous minority that speak a unique language. My grandfather comes from there.
My first motivation is to observe how a small secluded place deals with the nuances of digitalisation and institutionalisation, and how a trained designer can help a community through these matters. My second motivation is to introduce Khinalug and my relation to it through my stories and those of the village residents.
The village on the mountain was too isolated and remote for archaeologists and museologists, such that the first archaeological excavations started only around 2010. Nowadays there are three museums: one governmental and two initiated by the local residents. The villagers are curating these museums by themselves, and so far there is little to no interference from the side of the government. The museums are not white cubes—you can touch and use some of the objects, and there are unwritten stories that are told about the items exhibited, the museum, the future of the village, and archaeological excavations.
Now that the village is slowly gaining the attention of tourists and researchers, how can we preserve our local initiatives and curatorial decisions, and most importantly, how can we keep the objects where they were found? Might it be possible to build an alternative environment for those who want to research, publish, exhibit?
Nilufer Musaeva is an Azerbaijani artist and designer, born in Russia and based in Germany. Nilufer has experience with interface and graphic design, and is highly interested in finding non-profitable ways to use them, as well as in research on the institutions behind graphic design education. In her latest project she looks to her heritage from an Indigenous community of a mountainous village, with which she shares her design and art mediation skills.
IndoFuturism as Sonic Resynthesis: Decolonial Approaches to Electronic Music Production
Sri Rama Murthy (independent artist Hyderabad, IN)
This presentation examines how IndoFuturism can serve as a methodological framework for resynthesising traditional Indian musical elements in electronic music production. Drawing from my practical research through the »Elsewhere in India« project and ongoing experiments with modular synthesis, I explore how traditional Indian musical concepts can be deconstructed and reconstructed in ways that challenge Western-centric paradigms in electronic music. The research investigates three key areas:
Microtonal Systems: How can we adapt electronic music tools to authentically represent Indian microtonal variations? This includes analysis of the limitations of current Western-centric DAWs and the exploration of alternative tuning systems.
Rhythmic Frameworks: Examining the integration of Indian tala systems into electronic music production, moving beyond the constraints of Western metric structures.
Cultural Preservation Through Technology: How can electronic music and generative AI serve as tools for preserving and evolving marginalised musical traditions without falling into exoticization?
The presentation will include practical demonstrations using modular synthesis and examples from my work with traditional musicians, illustrating how IndoFuturism can provide a framework for ethical cultural transformation in electronic music.
Sound artist, ethnomusicologist, DJ and producer, Sri Rama Murthy is one of the initiators of electronic music subculture in India. With experiments spanning two decades, Murthovic has professed his multidisciplinary philosophy of sound through radio shows, live acts, audiovisual IPs, and media productions across genres. With experience in the fields of conservation, education, entertainment, fashion, gaming, hospitality, and many others, he professes the same credo through his studio Nadabramha.