Walking Hanoi - Reflections on improvisation, listening and being attached

Franziska

"Walking Hanoi 2024 - Reflections on improvisation, listening and being attached" is an audio visual piece, which stems from my long standing connection to Vietnam, and specifically to an artistic research project that took place in late March 2024 in Hanoi. It took place as part of an international project - led by VIetnamese researchers, musicians and artists - on thinking through how best to digitise the diverse ethnic minority music in Vietnam. A sound walk, a gamified, ambulatory listening activity, with around 50 international artists/researchers forms the basis for this reflective piece on improvisation, situated listening, on embodied being, identity and the ways we attach ourselves to things, and how things attach themselves to us. In reflecting on improvisation and being, the piece, written, narrated and produced by Franziska Schroeder, draws upon the insights of artists and writers, including Simon Rose, Donna Haraway, Lucy Suchman, Judith Butler, Martin Heidegger to reflect on the situated-ness of the 2 hour street walk in Hanoi. It is a personal reflection, informed by how unspoken, often ineffable knowledge can shape one’s internal perspective. This internal perspective, or ‘insider point of listening’ becomes a central theme in this piece, framing the perception of an improvising self in relation to her tactile and sonic surroundings.

References, mentioned in the A/V piece:

Butler, Judith. Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1990.

DomDom. Independent art centre, Vietnam, developing eperimental sound art and interdisciplinary collaborations. Website: https://domdommusic.net/en. 2012.

Everett, Daniel. Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious. University of Chicago Press. 2016.

Haraway, Donna. Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. 14,3. Feminist Studies. Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. 1988.

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. NY: Harper. NY. 1962.

Nettl B., & Russel M. (Eds.). In the course of performance: studies in the world of musical improvisation. London, UK: University of Chicago Press. 1998.

Noë, Alva. Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature. Hill and Wang. 2015.

Rose, Simon. Improvisation, music and learning: An Interpretive phenomenological analysis. Glasgow Caledonian University, UK. 2013.

Rose, Simon The Lived Experience of Improvisation: In Music, Learning and Life. University of Chicago Press. 2017.

Suchman, Luct. Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge University Press. 1987.

Waters, Simon. Un-privileging of our own contribution. A live online debate during the Physically Distant #3: the network, the pandemic, and telematic performance event organised by Federico Visi. 2020. Author’s personal notes.

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