Loudspeakers can shout too

Abstract

This article reflects on a performance by the Soundscape Study Group [GEPS – Grupo de Estudio en Paisaje Sonoro], made up of students in the BA program in Audiovisual Studies [Licenciatura en Audiovisión] at the Universidad Nacional de Lanús (Argentina), carried out at Feria Futuro, an on-campus event promoted by the National Secretary of Labor and Employment on 8-9 November 2018.

The artistic action, carried out in protest against precarious employment opportunities being promoted within an under-funded public institution, consisted of playing recordings of demonstrators chanting and police repression from the years 2001 and 2017 over portable loudspeakers. This intangible interference produced through sound as an element of protest produced an unusual disruption of the event: the small number of performers stood in marked contrast to the amplified magnitude of their presence.

Here we problematize the evocative qualities of the sound, and how its proposal of a new symbolism translates into provocation. The construction of meaning appeals to memory in order to delegitimize the festive atmosphere of a fair that touts retrograde phrases in the guise of modern design.