(Ir-) Resolution and (Non-) Renormalizability: On the Sonics of the Black Radical Tradition

Quantizing the world means breaking it down into discrete units that can be counted and that count — i.e. correspond to both meanings of the word: by making them countable, they become relevant. When the count approaches infinity, physicists perform a correction called renormalization: They draw a limit, absorb the excess and ensure that their calculation pays off. When the world's grain is finer than their instruments can capture, they set a noise threshold, a limit, and treat anything below that as a tolerable deviation. Anything beyond the standard deviation is masked out as noise. What happens when such quanta and data are not simply counted and analyzed, but listened to?

This workshop by Muindi Fanuel Muindi picks up on practices from the black radical sound tradition that open up other approaches to quanta and data. Polyrhythms, improvisation and making music together focus their attention on relationships and patterns that are “not counting” and hidden in numerical analysis.

With the help of specially developed software, samplers, drum machines and synthesizers, participants transform economic and ecological data sets — including data on inequality, raw material extraction and climate vulnerability — into sound. The data determines sequences of breakbeats, which are sampled, edited and improvised by the participants. Based on black sound traditions and Kodwo Eshun's reflections on Afrofuturistic sonic fiction, the workshop asks what becomes perceptible when data sets are viewed not as fixed objects that are to be analyzed, but as material that belongs and can be reinterpreted together. No previous musical or technical knowledge is required to participate.

Following the workshop, participants are invited to continue exploring open questions and ideas about quantum acoustics in the Pause on Quantum Matter lounge and reading area (Ceija Stojka Foyer in the entrance area of the auditorium).