Halcyon Lawrence talks to artist Sean Dockray, legal scholar James Parker, and curator Joel Stern about some of her work on the politics of voice user interfaces: in particular accent bias, ‘Siri discipline’ and the ways in which smart speakers reproduce and hardwire longstanding forms of linguistic imperialism.

Our devices are listening to us. Previous generations of audio-technology transmitted, recorded or manipulated sound. Today our digital voice assistants, smart speakers and a growing range of related technologies are increasingly able to analyse and respond to it as well. Scientists and engineers increasingly refer to this as “machine listening”, though the first widespread use of the term was in computer music. Machine listening is much more than just a new scientific discipline or vein of technical innovation however. It is also an emergent field of knowledge-power, of data extraction and colonialism, of capital accumulation, automation and control. It demands critical and artistic attention.

https://machinelistening.exposed/curriculum/

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Stefan Maier’s 2018 dossier on machine listening for Technosphere puts the work of artists like George Lewis, Jennifer Walshe, Florian Hecker, and Maryanne Amacher into conversation with Google’s wavenet. Artist Sean Dockray, legal scholar James Parker, and curator Joel Stern talk to Stefan about these and other works along with Stefan’s own compositions which treat machine listening as a prepared instrument, ready to be detourned.

Our devices are listening to us. Previous generations of audio-technology transmitted, recorded or manipulated sound. Today our digital voice assistants, smart speakers and a growing range of related technologies are increasingly able to analyse and respond to it as well. Scientists and engineers increasingly refer to this as “machine listening”, though the first widespread use of the term was in computer music. Machine listening is much more than just a new scientific discipline or vein of technical innovation however. It is also an emergent field of knowledge-power, of data extraction and colonialism, of capital accumulation, automation and control. It demands critical and artistic attention.

https://machinelistening.exposed/curriculum/

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Lauren Lee McCarthy talks to artist Sean Dockray, legal scholar James Parker, and curator Joel Stern about some of her many works concerned with smart speakers, machine listening and social relationships in the midst of surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. They discuss: LAUREN, for which she attempted to become a human version of Alexa, SOMEONE, which won her the Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Interactive Art +, and a range of related works and political questions.

Our devices are listening to us. Previous generations of audio-technology transmitted, recorded or manipulated sound. Today our digital voice assistants, smart speakers and a growing range of related technologies are increasingly able to analyse and respond to it as well. Scientists and engineers increasingly refer to this as “machine listening”, though the first widespread use of the term was in computer music. Machine listening is much more than just a new scientific discipline or vein of technical innovation however. It is also an emergent field of knowledge-power, of data extraction and colonialism, of capital accumulation, automation and control. It demands critical and artistic attention.

https://machinelistening.exposed/curriculum/

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Healing through improvised harp and open heart

Clare Cooper is the one of the subcultural world’s innovation pin-ups. She plays the harp and guzheng, sometimes she tap-dances. She’s passionate about the sociability of improvisation and it’s capacity to encourage compassion and radical acts of trust. This performance was recorded on the 19th of April 2018 at the Tote, Melbourne.

https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/events/brotzmann-leigh

Ritual Community Music

29 April 2018

The Tote, Collingwood

Presented by Liquid Architecture, the Goethe-Institut, and the Audio Foundation, NZ

Image: Tania Kelley

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Desecrating the imaginary historical burden and false symbols of race and history

Known for her powerful, often provocative live performance work and experimental projects, Betty Apple is one of the leading lights from a younger generation of avant-garde artists in Taiwan. Her focus is on live art and sound art, while also engaging in video art, performance art, electronic music producing, DJing and art curation. This performance was recorded on the 19th of April 2018 at the Tote, Melbourne.

https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/events/brotzmann-leigh

Ritual Community Music

29 April 2018

The Tote, Collingwood

Presented by Liquid Architecture, the Goethe-Institut, and the Audio Foundation, NZ

Image: Keelan O’Hehir

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Aphonic Exchange is an experiment in playful pedagogy led by artists Ceri Hann and Roseanne Bartley, co-opting Liquid Architecture’s social media presence to provoke responses and mutate social exchange mechanisms.

Curator Debris Facility talks to Ceri and Roseanne about the ideas behind the series of participatory prompts and the structure of the project and use of social media. Aphonic Exchange can be found on Liquid Architectures instagram, @liquid_architecture

https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/events/aphonic-exchange

Polythinking

23 - 30 October 2020

@liquid_architecture / #aphonicexchange

Presented by Liquid Architecture, APRA AMCOS and City of Melbourne

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Anabelle Lacroix hosts a conversation on Social Dissonance with Mattin, Elena Biserna and Tobi Maier in relation to her curatorial project 'From Wakefulness to Consciousness'.

https://disclaimer.org.au/contents/from-wakefulness-to-consciousness

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Jannah Quill uses strobe lights and DIY electronics, reimagining ordinary digital interfaces and technological machines to generate new experiences reinterpreted from the intended consumer use of the digitally banal. This performance was recorded on the 27th of September 2015 at the Tote, Melbourne.

www.liquidarchitecture.org.au/program/ri…ity-music/

Ritual Community Music

27 September 2015

The Tote, Melbourne

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

Mining the thin layer between restlessness and relaxation, gloom and serenity Ensemble Economique perform at Tape Projects.

From Humboldt County, California, Ensemble Economique made music for years in the cult group Starving Weirdos. Adopting their new moniker, they set off Travelling the globe like a Lynchian version of Hemingway, mining the thin layer between restlessness and relaxation, gloom and serenity. This performance was recorded at Tape Projects on the 24th of February 2016.

https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/events/ensemble-economique/

Ritual Community Music

24 February 2016

Tape Projects, Carlton

Presented by Liquid Architecture

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

How should we think the weaponisation of sound? And what, if anything, has law got to do with it? Dr. James Parker, director of a research program on Law, Sound and the International at the Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH) at Melbourne Law School, surveys the privileged landscapes and material technics of sonic warfare. This lecture was recorded on the 3rd of October 2015 at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. in this amplified lecture.

Read more of Jame Parker's research here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20551940.2018.1564458?journalCode=rfso20

https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/events/la2015-brisbane

Histories and Theories of Sound

03 October 2015

Institute of Modern Art Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane

Presented by Liquid Architecture, 4ZZZ, and IMA Brisbane

Financial support from patrons at any level has a resounding impact on our work. You can support Liquid Architecture’s weekly podcast and our online journal Disclaimer, for new thinking and writing on listening and sound through a Patreon subscription, for as little as $5 a month.

https://www.patreon.com/liquidarchitecture

For the past 20 years, Liquid Architecture has been Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.