About the talk:
Improvising in the Ruins of Freedom
In this presentation, I will explore the core ideas of my practice, which is based on noise and improvisation and often takes place collectively.
Here, noise is understood in a broader sense—as a form of disruption to the normative realm, shaking our cognitive capacities. In fact, we could say that we are living in noisy times.
Improvisation is a practice dynamic enough to engage with the challenges posed by this noise. However, improvisation cannot be merely anchored in individual expression—especially when we do not even know what the individual is. To improvise is to undermine the constraints that determine us. But in order to do so, we must first understand what those constraints are. For improvisation to move beyond its limits, it must grasp the determining processes and act upon them.
Under current conditions, the capitalist mode of production is the most powerful determining process shaping reality. Can improvisation be possible under these conditions? This is the key question I have been grappling with.
Our means are extremely limited, and those we do have seem to be failing us. The limits of social democracy over the past decade have been swallowed by a rising fascist wave that continues to grow.
Listening to the disintegration of liberal subjectivity may help us avoid repeating the overemphasis on the individual. This means we need other ways of listening and acting in this world—ones that do not fall into the same liberal traps as before.
At the end we will interpret the instructional score Social Dissonance.
About the artist:
Mattin is an artist, musician, and theorist working conceptually with noise and improvisation. Through his practice, writing, and pedagogy, he explores performative forms of estrangement as a way to address structural alienation.
He has exhibited and performed worldwide, including at documenta14 (Athens and Kassel), the Shanghai Biennial, Performa (NYC), What is Music? (Sydney & Melbourne), Club Transmediale (Berlin), Arika (Glasgow), Sonic Protest (Paris), and Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid).
Mattin has lectured and taught at institutions such as HDK-Valand (Gothenburg), the Dutch Art Institute (Arnhem), New Centre for Research & Practice (Berlin), CalArts (California), Bard College (New York), Paris VIII, Princeton University, Willem de Kooning Academy (Rotterdam), and Goldsmiths College (London).
In 2017, he completed an international Ph.D. in Artistic Research at the University of the Basque Country under the supervision of philosopher Ray Brassier.
Together with Anthony Iles, he edited the book Noise & Capitalism (Kritika/Arteleku, 2009), which has been translated into Greek and Chinese. Mattin and Iles are currently in the final stages of editing the volume Abolishing Capitalist Totality (Archive Books). In 2012, CAC Brétigny and Tuamaturgia published Unconstituted Praxis, a book collecting Mattin's writings, interviews, and performance reviews.
Urbanomic MIT Press published his book Social Dissonance in 2022, with its Spanish translation released in 2024 by Dobra Robota (Buenos Aires) and Tsonami Ediciones (Valparaíso).
Mattin is a member of the groups Billy Bao, Regler, and Al Karpenter and has over 100 releases on various labels worldwide.
He is also part of the Noise Research Union (NRU) with Cécile Malaspine, Miguel Prado, Sonia de Jager, Martina Raponi, and Inigo Wilkins. Since 2020, he has co-hosted the podcast Social Discipline with Miguel Prado.
Link to Facebookevent:
https://fb.me/e/98ygN1tm0
