Slow Listening: A Workshop with Dr. Moushumi Bhowmik

The acclaimed performer and academic Dr. Moushumi Bhowmik will be conducting a methodological and experimental workshop at the South Asia Institute which encourages scholars to take a vertical plunge into sound, and to understand how one sound can lead us into many directions, if we listen slowly. Dr. Bhowmik will show how she has grown into a sound, departing from her 2021 publication on the songs of Keramat Ali, a South Asian prisoner of war and Sawabali, a lascar, whose recorded voices are in Sound Archives in Berlin. The workshop will put these recordings in conversation with a meshed archive, including the film, Halfmoon Files (directed by Peter Scheffner, 2007).

The workshop is limited to 10 participants and registration is essential. The class is participatory and it is assumed that participants prepare by reading, bring a ‘found sound’ of their own and watch a film. Please email history@sai.uni-heidelberg.de to register and to receive a preparation pack.