A common refrain within discussions of energy transition today is that we must work towards better communicating the energy emergency, especially amidst the noise of today’s discordant convergence of crises. NOTES FROM THE ENERGETIC QUIETUS (EQ) wonders about the limits of this strategy and how such imperatives for communication might work to determine the very threshold of what is considered in/audible in the first place. In the artists’ own idiom: “Attuned to this threshold of in/audibility, we direct our active, if habituated, ears towards the non-productive—the subtracted, the entropic, the refused, the latent, and the exhausted dimensions—of the (so-called) energy impasse through a series of unsound findings, or what we have called, Notes from the Energetic Quietus.”
What might get lost in the static of energy transition?
This quiet installation invited participants to slow down and listen differently to the sounds of energetic speculation as it might be practiced from the vantage of a collaborative team of researchers trying to get to the bottom of this thing called the “energetic quietus.” The findings of this speculative research team were presented via an audio recording, which was captured from a live performance-lecture where the team shared their work with colleagues, and then presented back via a single-chaired, dimly-lit listening nook. The audio recording features several Notes from their study, which are relayed to the listener, along with related sonic data. Examples of some of the findings include Notes such as: Note #f(t), The Sound of the Air Pressure at any Given Time, which poses questions on sound wave subtraction protocols; Note # n-1 [File Under Subtraction], which offers experimental gestures for subtracting from dominant energy metaphors; Note #Q=W=Q, Heat Engine, which hypothesizes on how reversals are speculations too; and Note #xoxox, Post Exhaustion and the Energetics of Warmth, which hypothesizes on how energy transition might involve both the endurance and suspension of exhaustion.
Notes from the Energetic Quietus was presented as part of the Prototypes for Possible Worlds exhibition, which was held at the University of Alberta’s Fine Arts Building Gallery from 10 December 2019 to 11 January 2020.
Notes from the Energetic Quietus (EQ) Team
Additional collaborators include Catlin W. Kuzyk for support with the audio recording and sound engineering.
