Parasonic: Transmission of fugitive aural practices

Parasonic: Transmission of fugitive aural practices

Parasonic is a research project on the social and racial constructions of aural practices, based on a critique of a regime of thinking and listening to sound that is over-represented in the arts, and which aims to create spaces for the transmission of fugitive aural practices.

Research project (2025) with Stéphane Kropf, Thibault Walter, Lucas Erin, Gina Proenza, Joël Vacheron

Know-how
Sound

Parasonic is a research project on the social and racial constructions of aural practices, based on a critique of a regime of thinking and listening to sound that is over-represented in the arts, and which aims to create spaces for the transmission of fugitive aural practices. It is part of contemporary studies on the cultural history of perceptions and works alongside researchers who have been deconstructing racializing practices and politics of perception for a century (in particular Du Bois, 1920; Fanon, 1949; Baldwin, 1955; Morrison, 1992; Glissant, 1990; Gilroy, 1995; hooks, 1997; Hartman, 1997; Haraway, 1997; Wynter, 2003; Ahmed, 2007; Harney and Moten, 2022; Campt, 2017, 2023).

The project articulates two levels of discussion: a substantive level based on theoretical debates on the notion of ‘white aurality’. And an operational level based on the audio-visual editing of filmed artists' stories of listening and their public played in spaces for the transmission of practical knowledge. Two levels of goals are therefore also articulated: to gain knowledge and self-critical awareness about the relationship between racialization and listening practices; and to create pieces designed as tools to transmit listenings what the regime of white aurality does not hear: ways of listening that escape it, or that ignore it, or that oppose it (hence the term para-sonic).

Research data progressively available on  

VisionCreationNewSound.ch

 

Image: Jessie Cox, Sounds of Black Switzerland, Duke University Press, 2025 (cover detail)

Main applicants

Stéphane Kropf
Thibault Walter

Research team

Lucas Erin
Stéphane Kropf
Gina Proenza
Joël Vacheron
Thibault Walter

Lecturers and researchers

Marie Thompson (04.03.25) 
Jessie Cox (18.03.25)
Hannah Catherine Jones (09.04.25)
Fred Moten & Brandon López (20.11.25)

Assistant

Nora Hofer

Students

2ème et 3ème années BA Arts Visuels

Partners

La Becque – résidence d’artistes

Period

01.12.2024 – 01.05.2026

Supported by

HES-SO, Réseau de Compétences Design et Arts Visuels RCDAV

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