The Planet's Voices

Humans have narrated the world countless times, with all kinds of overlapping stories imagining, explaining, and putting into words our place on the planet. But today, the prevailing discourses accommodate unsustainable exploitation of resources and contempt for other forms of life. Swamped in this anthropocentric gaze, we have lost our connections with our surroundings and have forgotten that neither our history nor our future can be written without the other inhabitants of Earth. Perhaps it is now time to re-suture this open wound and start to listen to the other stories, those of the non-humans. Will they tell us how to restore our link with the Earth?

In this session, the philosopher Vinciane Despret will present her reading-cum-performance “Phonocene” in which, with artists Mélanie Courtinat and Antoine Bertin, she will present a sound and visual landscape created with non-human animals. Immediately afterwards, we can listen to the thoughts of the philosopher and biologist Donna Haraway, a pioneer in reconsidering our relationship with the other living species and author of a body of work that has changed the direction of the dialogue between the humanities and science. The singer Maria Arnal will set Haraway’s words to music. She will be joined by the writers María Sánchez and Irene Solà who, together, will interlace stories and, with three voices, will produce a growing lichen made of words.

 

Technical sheet of “Phonocene”
Text & performance : Vinciane Despret
Computational video : Mélanie Courtinat
Sound composition : Antoine Bertin
Idea & Direction: Fabien Siouffi
Production : Fabbula and CCCB