Lecture on pharmacoloniality & Seminar on decolonial listening, hosted by Manuel Macía

Lecture: On Pharmacoloniality / from 11h00 to 12h30. Aula 2

For this lecture, Manuel will present his ongoing research project, titled Pharmacoloniality. The talk elaborates on the concept (pharmacoloniality) and Puerto Rican Acoustemologist Julio Ramos’ notion of a pharmacolonial condition of modernity. The presentation will critically assess historical and contemporary understandings of the War on Drugs, by including philosophical, sonic, and sensory materials as primary sources for an expansive understanding of modernity, the colonisation of the sensory realm, and networks of exchange of global capitalism.

Methodologically, the presentation is accompanied by a selection of Latin American sonic objects, focusing on the aural entanglements of pharmacolonial substances in the matrices of modernity/coloniality. The session invites modes of listening that map global commodity flows and their intersections with aural and drug cultures across Europe and the Americas.

• Audience: open to all.

Seminar on Decolonial Listening / from 13h30 to 15h30. Room 2.16

This seminar is an invitation to consider listening as a critical methodology for research in the arts, architecture, and design. We will focus on the key notion of 'decolonial listening' to dispute vision's primacy as the privileged sense of knowledge in Western modernity. Research is usually framed in ways that privilege visual metaphors—we often hear of aims, evidence, objectives, observation, etc. However, this ranking of vision and splitting of the senses is a relatively recent historical phenomenon.

Join this session to explore new ways of positioning your research. You do not have to be an expert in sound to join this seminar—we only expect an openness to thinking about your research project(s) otherwise.

• Task: please bring a sonic object that articulates, accompanies, animates, challenges, dialogues with, exposes, or problematises your research. A sonic object could be anything—a pop song, a phrase, a field recording, a sound effect, your own voice, etc. (Think of the sonic equivalent of 'bring one image'). In addition, please read the texts that accompany this seminar.

• Audience: doctoral students from Hasselt University, PXL-MAD School of Arts, and LUCA School of Arts (Research Unit Inter-Actions).

• Suggested readings:
  • Feld, Steven. 2015. Acoustemology. In Keywords in Sound, ed. David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny. Durham; London: Duke University Press.
  • Robinson, Dylan. 2020. Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies. Indigenous Americas. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

About Manuel Macía

Dr Manuel Macía is Inter-Actions Visiting Scholar on Decolonial Art and Design Research at LUCA School of Arts, Genk. Manuel (he/him/his) is a London-based researcher. He is affiliated to the Art Academy of Latvia (LMA), where he is Senior Scientist for the EU4ART_differences European University Alliance (Horizon 2020), and Guest Associate Professor for the MA in Curatorial Studies. Manuel is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal for Artistic Research (JAR), published by the Society for Artistic Research (SAR). He holds a PhD from the Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.