To hear on Sunday 6 and 13 December 2015, 2pm - 9pm:
Preparations for an Imaginary Conflict
(2015, Premiere)
by Cathy Lane (UK)
Cathy Lane on 'Preparations for an Imaginary Conflict':
"We are concerned here not so much with the almost natural phenomenon of identifying an enemy who is threatening us, but with the process of creating and demonizing the enemy."
Umberto Eco
Sound and language are powerful tools in the construction of imagined conflict scenarios and their aftermaths. ‘Preparations for an Imaginary Conflict' draws on the rhetoric of war and how it has been used to prepare (and scare) the public for a possible attack or to build up the idea of the hostile ‘other’ in a number of real and fictional situations over the last seventy years. The work includes spoken word recordings from public information media, oral history, archival news, texts and field recordings from specific geographical sites.
As I write this, the very same phrases are being used by David Cameron, the prime minister of the UK, as he tries to persuade the country and the government to bomb Syria.
Cathy Lane, London, November 2015
Cathy Lane is a composer, sound artist and academic. Her work uses spoken word, field recordings and archive material to explore aspects of our listeningrelationship with each other and the multiverse. She is currently focused on how sound relates to the past, our histories, environment and our collectiveand individual memories from a feminist perspective. Cathy is Professor of Sound Arts at University of the Arts London and co-director of CRiSAP (Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice), University of the Arts London.
www.crisap.org
www.hebrides-suite.co.uk