17–19 May 2022
Hugely excited to present a very special three day residency with musician, performance artist and noise theorist, Mattin, marking the publication of his new book, Social Dissonance by Urbanomic.
If John Cage said there is not such a thing as silence, I will argue that there is noise. A mental state of noise arising from what I call social dissonance: If cognitive dissonance is often understood as the mental discomfort one feels when two or more modes of thought contradict each other or because of the incongruity between what one thinks and one does, then social dissonance is the massive cognitive dissonance that exist between what we believe in liberal societies and in a lot of experimental music like in free improvisation (individual freedom, equality and democracy) and what we do (reproduce a system based on unfreedom, inequality, and oppression). This inevitably causes a general mental state of noise and a sense of discomfort. During this residency we will address this mental state of noise and its different repercussions by examining practically and theoretically our understanding of noise in the 21st Century and what do we mean by capitalist totality today.
Every morning from 10am to 1pm there will be a free workshop dealing with the specific theme of the day. Anybody interested in having a more intimate knowledge on the specific issues and is willing to work with the people involved, please come to the workshops.
Workshops 10am-1pm (Free of charge but booking recommended)
- 17th Workshop on Social Dissonance with Mattin
- 18th Workshop on 21st Century Noise with NRU (Noise Research Union with Sonia de Jager, Cecile Malaspina, Mattin, Inigo Wilkins, Miguel Prado, Martina Raponi)
- 19th Workshop on Abolishing Capitalist Totality: What is to be Done Under Real Subsumption? with Anthony Iles and Mattin
Mattin is an artist, musician and theorist working conceptually with noise and improvisation. Through his practice and writing he explores performative forms of estrangement as a way to deal with structural alienation. Mattin has exhibited and toured worldwide. He has performed in festivals such as Performa (NYC), No Fun (NYC), Club Transmediale (Berlin), Arika (Glasgow). In 2017 he completed a PhD at the University of the Basque Country under the supervision of the philosopher Ray Brassier. Along with Anthony Iles he edited the book Noise & Capitalism (Kritika/Arteleku 2009). In 2012 CAC Brétigny and Tuamaturgia published Unconsitituted Praxis, a book collecting his writing plus interviews and reviews from performances. Anthony Iles and Mattin are currently in the final stages of editing the volume Abolishing Capitalist Totality: What is To Be Done Under Real Subsumption? (Archive Books). Mattin is part of the bands Billy Bao and Regler and has over 100 releases in different labels worldwide. He is and currently co-hosting with Miguel Prado the podcast Social Discipline. Mattin took part in 2017 in documenta14 in Athens and Kassel. Urbanomic has just published his book Social Dissonance.
