<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span lang="EN-CA">Hi all, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span lang="EN-CA">It’s such a
pleasure to do as Arshiya and Renate so warmly invited and take a few deep
breaths in this soft-skinned space! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span lang="EN-CA">Rather serendipitously,
I’ve found myself imbibing the many exciting vignettes emerging from the listserv
alongside a chapter from Jacob Smith’s <i><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520286146/eco-sonic-media" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Eco-Sonic
Media</a> </i>about divination technologies—from rhabdomancy wands to metal
detectors—that sense various subterranean treasures. As users listen for
aberrant frequencies, these practices stage material encounters with past
inhabitants of a place through an act of “occult auscultation.” Smith suggests
that these practices might be allied with environmentalist and conservationist
movements, as they initiate intimate sensorial engagements with the earth and
re-invest value in discarded objects. This seems to resonate rather beautifully
with expanded connections invited by the Age of Aquarius: attuned to charged spatio-temporal
overlaps and hauntings, yet grounded in place and planet and ripe for reorientation
towards ecological care. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 12pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span lang="EN-CA">This
speculative media archaeological approach is similar to that which I take in my
own research. My doctoral project, still in its very nascent stages,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color:black"> </span><span style="color:black">considers the
performances of 19<sup>th</sup> century spirit mediums as sonic interfaces. I seek to chart an alternative genealogy, and a future ethical trajectory, of feminized
voices in media technologies that exceeds the regressive gender politics
encoded in voice-activated personal assistants, such as Siri and Alexa.
This
project is also aligned with my preoccupation with voices more broadly—wavering
between declarative self-presence and spectrality, embodiment and disembodiment
(what <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/voice-and-nothing-more" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Mladen
Dolar</a> terms an “ineradicable extimacy”)—which I explore through my creative
practice as a writer and artist. I’ll be presenting a collection of sound works,
titled <i>The Hydrocephalus Suite, </i>this
spring at <a href="https://theplumb.ca/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">the plumb</a> at Toronto that sound the
gossamer dreams</span><span style="color:black">cape between text and body. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 12pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:black">Looking forward to further discussion, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 12pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:black">Alex </span></p><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><b>Alex Borkowski</b> (she/her)</div><div><br></div><div><b>PhD student, Communication & Culture</b></div><div>York University</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://alexborkowski.net/portfolio/" style="font-size:12.8px" target="_blank">alexborkowski.net</a><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>