(Non)Sleep as Social Practice
22-Mar-20 22.00-07.00 CET
WHEN LIVE HIT "ON ɹI∀"
in the Menu ∀bove
(Non)Sleep as Social Practice is a live event developed at ZK/U Centre for Art and Urbanistics in Berlin, broadcast by Threads*sub_ʇxǝʇ from a private residence in Berlin. It focuses on the politics of sleeplessness, desynchronization between the body and society, the individual and the group.
The program investigates the potential for collective socialites to reclaim night time as a form of resistance against individualizing and homogenizing forces through sound and listening. For the duration of one’s night of sleep, the program will feature a range of international artists, experimental musicians and radio makers, as well as movement workshops to navigate through cycles of ‘dissonances’, ‘releases’ and ‘awakenings’.
Curatorial Guest Takeover by Anabelle Lacroix
22.00: Dissonance 1: (Non)Sleep as collective, and social practice.
22.15: Release 1: Falling: deconstructions of the mind and time.
23.00: Awakening 1: Political awakenings: on uprisings and de-colonisation.
00.00: Release 2: screaming and collapsing [inl workshop].
01.00: Dissonance 2: Sleep, capitalism and bio-capital: on control and normalisation, anxiety, silencing and deviant knowledge.
05.00: Awakening 2: Dawn: Transitions & New cosmologies: multi-level and queer listening [includes “The sleepwalkers”: introduction to field’s astronomy].
Artists & Contributors:
Pia Achternkamp aka. loh; Katja Aglert; Félicia Atkinson; Méryll Ampe;
Apocrypha | أبوكريفا; Critical Techno (; David Clark: Nothing to See Here;
Danilo Correale; Dis Fig; Nathan Gray and The Weirding Module; Alex Head on Deviancy; Khalab feat Tenesha The Wordsmith; Grace Euna Kim & Biliana Voutchkova; Petra Klepcová; Josephine Mead; Jannah Quill; Geoff Robinson; Muhammad Salah; Gustavo Sanromán Vázquez
Shackleton; Anthea Caddy and Thembi Sodell; Byungseo Yoo
Work vs./& Abstraction + Feelings (at night):
Klara Ström; Vera Vice (Ave Vellesalu & Helen Västrik); Eero Pulkkinen & Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen; Ana Gutieszca; Vilja Vee (Niko Tiinanen); Nadine Byrne; Helena Pulkkinen & Saara Taipale and Frank Rizzo
Open Tracklist PDF
(Non)Sleep as Social Practice - Dissonance Pt1: (Non)Sleep as collective, and social practice 22.00-22.40
An introduction to this program that will explore structures of time and control, movements of falling and rising. Sleep is a point of amplification for other fears and anxieties in contemporary times. We suggest that sleeping is a social and cultural practice that can be used to rethink relationships between our bodies and society, between individuals and groups. In this time of social isolation, we open this first movement with a sound piece that connects localities and times through the sounds we hear upon waking and falling asleep.
Featuring: Geoff Robinson, Jannah Quill, Méryll Ampe
(Non)Sleep as Social Practice - Release Pt1: Falling: deconstructions of the mind and time 22.40-23.25
In this section, the composition by Biliana Voutchkova (which was part of a performance piece by Grace Euna Kim) slowly unfolds as a sonic tool to deconstruct psychological structures imposed by society’s normalized systems that are embedded in our bodies. Perception of time itself is questioned as form of pressure upon strict periods of sleep and wakefulness. Méryll Ampe’s new release ‘Residues of Time’ played here and throughout the program was composed over a year, in exploring durational processes and working with residues of sound materials.
Featuring: Biliana Voutchkova & Grace Euna Kim, Méryll Ampe
(Non)Sleep as Social Practice - Awakening Pt1: Political awakenings: on uprisings and de-colonisation 23.15-23.45
Sleeping and being awake are both revolutionary acts. With his section we look at this long tradition through Anna Della Subin’s book “Not Dead but Sleeping” and a speech by Martin Luther King. Awakening is a common metaphor for political movements and uprisings, particularly in relation to de-colonisation. We discuss Achile Membe’s idea of ‘coming out of dark night’ in a French context, and are also transported to the streets of Khartoum during the Sudanese Revolution last year with tracks composed by the collective Apocrypha.
Featuring: DJ Khalab feat Tenesha The Wordsmith, Martin Luther King, Apocrypha
(Non)Sleep as Social Practice - Release Pt2: Collapse 23.45-00.00
The final release: collapse.
A focus on Grace Euna Kim’s research into the psychic life of ideology, and the body as a site of resistance in crisis.
Featuring: Grace Euna Kim
(Non)Sleep as Social Practice - Dissonance Pt2: Sleep, capitalism and bio-capital: on control and normalisation, anxiety, silencing and deviant knowledge 00.00-04.30
In these early hours of the morning you are invited to find periods of rest to explore the porous states that lay between sleep and unsleep with talks and experimental music. During an interview with Alex Head we discuss deviant knowledge, entropy and forms of othering, and with Gustavo Sanromán Vázquez we unpack ideas of cognitive captitalism, and the current cultural shift in brain hacking and the pharmakon. Subliminal messaging and sleep programming for self performance and healing is also explored by Nathan Gray. Through sound we experience speed, attunement and empowerment. We focus on the body, on listening in, with and through our bodies, and think about anxiety as an alarm bell to take action.
Featuring: Josephine Mead, Shackleton, Anthea Caddy and Thembi Sodell, Gustavo Sanromán Vázquez,
Weirding module, Dis Fig, Felicia Atkinson, Pia Achternkamp aka. loh,
Byungseo Yoo
(Non)Sleep as Social Practice - Awakening 2: Dawn: Transitions & New cosmologies: multi-level and queer listening 04.40-07.00
This last movement deals with binaries, the binaries of day and night —and other integrated binaries— through a process of slow transformation and transition. We focus on what we are not used to listen to, as well as thinking about other forms of listening to normalised listening. We explore feminist, queer and multi-level listening with a reading from Gloria Anzaldúa and Work vs./& Abstraction + Feelings (at night), cosmic listening with David Clark as well as alien listening with sounds from the deep past. At the end of the program, Danilo Correale prepares us for a post-work society and indirectly reflects the role of art in the specific times that we live in.
Featuring: Katja Aglert, David Clark: Nothing to See Here, Critical techno (Helena Dietrich and Thomas Proksch), Work vs./& Abstraction + Feelings (at night), 2019 with Klara Ström, Vera Vice (Ave Vellesalu & Helen Västrik), Eero Pulkkinen & Eeva- Maija Pulkkinen, Ana Gutieszca, Vilja Vee (Niko Tiinanen), Nadine Byrne, Helena Pulkkinen & Saara Taipale and Frank Rizzo. (Brought together by Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen), Danilo Correale, Meryll Ampe, Petra Klepcová