Whistling Bodies: the Social Power of Collective Sound

In this event, Iran-born and London-based artist Aliaskar Abarkas will present his on-going project "The Community Whistling Choir." Committed to approaching art-making as a collaborative process, Aliaskar shares how questions about communication and conviviality inform this on-going work. Aliaskar's practice is deeply rooted in alternative and communal art education. He explores through soundscapes and visual documentation the dynamic interplay between embodied and collective experiences.

The artist will discuss in conversation with Maria Fantinato G. Siqueira (Duke University) and Paniz Musawi Natanzi (Duke University) the possibilities that arise from whistling as a shared language and a mode of expressing solidarity. Drawing on the artist's commitment and the discussants' dedication to anti-colonial pedagogies, they will talk about what brings people together, how soundscapes invite to render interconnectedness visible and the potentiality of whistling as a language that transcends the conventions of a specific place and time.

Convenor: Paniz Musawi Natanzi

Image: from Aliaskar's ongoing project "Test for Thermal Imaging," courtesy of the artist, 2023