A Spectral Geology
(2022)
author(s): D.A. Calf
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
Monuments exist as loci of official history, designed to be resilient and permanent. However, the world around them is in constant flux, questioning their continued significance. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken at monument (spomenik) sites in the former Yugoslav republics of the Western Balkans, together with archival sources, A Spectral Geology is a creative outcome of a continuing speculative investigation into sound and its potential contribution to alternative historical narratives. In imagining sound as a geological, sedimentary medium with the potential to transmit and sequester memory, it considers the possibility of hearing the murmured traces of the past through its excavation.
