Listen to the 9th podcast, “Speeches of the Unheard,” atGoethe InstitutSpotify
Description
The title “Speeches of the Unheard” is revised from the sentence “But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.” “What is it that Americans have failed to hear?” Martin Luther King Jr., 1967, “The Other America” speech at Stanford University.
My idea is to give podcast speeches of the struggle of commoners who participated in/led the protests that have been seeking democracy and justice in Thailand from 1954 until now. Their messages won’t be heard, but instead the sound of local birds in Thailand will be heard. The work is resonant, as my appreciation for Beuys’s practice is interested in animal and human politics. My expression of this work then focuses on this relationship with the background context of what’s happening in Thailand. The juxtaposition of this relationship comes from a Thai idiom, “The voice of birds and crows,” that mean
the meaningless voice or the voice that one should not pay attention to. I came across this idiom because the commoners have been fighting and calling for democracy and justice for many generations, even though it is well thought out and ready to open up to discussions in order to find a peaceful solution in the society. However, it doesn’t seem to be listened to carefully and open-mindedly by the authority. The people’s voice is like the sound of birds and crows, which has no meaning for them; instead, it is just the noise that they tend to force silence on.
The process to do it is to use a computer with a sound card and DMX controller to randomly replace the speech of human sound with the bird sound in real time during the recording of the podcast. The bird sound will be recorded in advance to use in this process. The bird sound sources are from 10 recorders who capture 1,543 sounds of birds in 30 provinces in Thailand—covering every part of the country from central, north, south, east, west, and northeast.
The computer will randomly select the sound archives that fit the length and character of each word or sentence of the speech, and during the pause between the word or sentence, the sound of the bird will stop too. It is like a spontaneous interpretation from human speech to bird. However, the human speech will be silent.
After processing the program to make it select randomly from the sounds, in the final work, it uses these following bird sounds.
The common name of birds:
Arctic Warbler, Asian Barred Owlet, Asian Koel, Black-crested Bulbul, Black-winged Stilt, Blue-eared Barbet, Blue-winged Pitta, Brown Hawk-Owl, Brown Prinia, Collared Falconet, Common Myna, Common Redshank, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Dusky Warbler, Eurasian, Hoopoe, Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, Golden-bellied Gerygone, Great Barbet, Greater Coucal, Greater Flameback, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Green-legged Partridge, Green-tailed Sunbird, Large Scimitar Babbler, Large-billed Crow, Lesser Yellownape, Malaysian Pied Fantail, Mangrove Pitta, Moustached Barbet, Paddyfield Pipit, Puff-throated Babbler, Red-breasted Parakeet, Red-wattled Lapwing, Richard’s Pipit, Ruby-cheeked, Sunbird, Rufous-backed Sibia, Sarus Crane, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Silver-eared Laughingthrush, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Spotted Dove, Spotted Owlet, Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo, Striated Grassbird, Stripe-throated Bulbul, White-gorgeted Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Yellow-browed Warbler, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Zebra Dove
Reference of speeches:
ซะการีย์ยา อมตยา Zakariya Amataya (a poet), ณัฐวุฒิ ใสยเกื้อ Nattawut Saikua (a politician), ไม้หนึ่ง ก.กุนที Maineung Kor Kunthee (a poet and political activist), อานนท์ นำภา Arnon Nampa (a lawyer and human right activist)
All speeches were spoken by the authors except the poem by Maineung Kor Kunthee, which was read.
by ส้ม ศุภปริญญา Som Supaparinya.
Credits:
Sound editing, programming and mastering: ddmy studio
Sound recording: Mike Nelson, Greg Irving, Marc Anderson, Peter Ericsson, Thijs Fijen, Somkiat Pakapinyo (Chai), Bernard BOUSQUET, Ding Li Yong, Albert Noorlander, and Aladdin.
(the sound of bird calls random 1543 files of 30 provinces in Thailand [central, north,
south, east, west and northeastern parts of Thailand])
The common name of the bird, which the program makes a random selection in the final
work are as follows:
Arctic Warbler, Asian Barred Owlet, Asian Koel, Black-crested Bulbul, Black-winged
Stilt, Blue-eared Barbet, Blue-winged Pitta, Brown Hawk-Owl, Brown Prinia, Collared
Falconet, Common Myna, Common Redshank, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Dusky Warbler,
Eurasian, Hoopoe, Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, Golden-bellied Gerygone, Great
Barbet, Greater Coucal, Greater Flameback, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo,
Green-legged Partridge, Green-tailed Sunbird, Large Scimitar Babbler, Large-billed
Crow, Lesser Yellownape, Malaysian Pied Fantail, Mangrove Pitta, Moustached Barbet,
Paddyfield Pipit, Puff-throated Babbler, Red-breasted Parakeet, Red-wattled Lapwing,
Richard’s Pipit, Ruby-cheeked, Sunbird, Rufous-backed Sibia, Sarus Crane,
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Silver-eared Laughingthrush, Sooty-headed Bulbul,
Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Spotted Dove, Spotted Owlet, Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo,
Striated Grassbird, Stripe-throated Bulbul, White-gorgeted Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied
Prinia, Yellow-browed Warbler, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Zebra Dove
About this episode (9th of 15 episodes)
In this episode we listen to the sound artwork “Speeches of the Unheard” by the Thai artist Som Supaparinya. For this work she translated the speeches and poems of Thai poets as well as political and human rights activists into the song of the birds native to Thailand, or in “the voices of birds and crows,” as it is called in a Thai saying. This phrase describes the devaluation of the words of others as meaningless—just like the voices of the many political activists in Thailand, which are ignored and even silenced by the authorities.
The actual wording of the speeches and poems used, as well as further information on Som Supaparinya’s work “Speeches of the Unheard,” can be found here:
This episode was produced by Goethe-Institut Bangkok in cooperation with beuys 2021
About beuysradio
Is everyone an artist? Are trees smarter than people? Is plastic a synonym for the human? Are we the revolution? Do we live in a sham democracy? Are the days of capitalism numbered? Joseph Beuys asked many of the questions that concern us most today. Beuysradio examines who Beuys was, what exactly he said, how it affects us today, and why his ideas and his person are still discussed so controversially to this day. beuysradio takes up the theses and questions and presents them anew in the here and now. the free online audio program for critical encounter with joseph beuys presents 100 voices about himself, 21 podcasts on his most current questions, numerous reports on the festival program “beuys 2021” on the occasion of his 100th birthday, a series of playlists made with the music he was listening to.
Overall conception and management by catherine nichols
Curatorial assistance and coordination: Pia Witzmann
Collaboration with Eugen Blume, Anne-marie Franz, Inga Nake, Bianca Quasebarth, and Pia witzmann
Production: the podcast producers (Tina Küchenmeister, Claudius Nießen, Tobias Rohe, Andreas Popella, Annegret Richter, and Rabea Scholz)
