Listening to Identity Morphologies
Upkeep Singularities. Emphasize Similarities.
Musical Picnic – Listening to Identity Morphologies was a workshop held on the Parity Talk 2022 in D-Arch, ETH Zurich. The aim is to recognize background identities in public spaces and to upkeep differences in the institution.
A public open call was made before the workshop to collect music/sounds/silence that one identifies with. They were then made into a playlist and broadcasted during the workshop. Through the collective listening, we picnic together and explore music presenting different layers of identities and intimate colors.
Photo Credit © Armand Zanota
If I Should Die – dj lostboi
“This song by DJ LOSTBOI marks a personal spiritual ascension in the confusing depths of our digital age. When it seemed that I was losing my identity in the world wide web, encounters with art like this once again reaffirmed my profane existence by sending shivers through my skin.
Play however, it is a contemplative piece of music though.”
Adhan (Call to prayer)
“This call happens 5 times a day.
Prayer has a spatial manifestation and the social role to bring everyone on the same level.”
Sprache 107 – Alexander Bruderer
SUARA TUKANG BAKSO – Cupman
“Ambient sound, between 3 and 5pm a soup merchant drives through street and warns people by knocking on the pan”
Unknown Happiness – Maher Shaiai
Lugano addio – Ivan Graziani
“Ivan Graziani, which have never been in Switzerland, sings about the region of Lugano through the eyes of a girl he felt in love with. The girl, which grew up there, describes him several social and economical characteristics of the informal Ticino in the past century (e.x. smuggling). The Author gives a precise description of a place and society in which he never lived, thus showing a deep respect to other’s people stories and roots. He also draws comparisons with his own place of origin, Abruzzo, a region by the sea, with an economy based on fishing.
Both, Ivan Graziani and the girl, had to migrate. Still today many young people in Ticino are still forced to do the same in order to study and/or build their economic independence. Often when they go to live in German-speaking Switzerland they find themself in situations of discrimination and exclusion. Few people are really interested in finding out about our Canton, and people often depict Ticino just as an holiday resort.“
時には母のない子のように – Carmen Maki
“When I listen to this song, I can image that there is one big field with a lots of flowers. And there is one girl grow up there who didn’t know anything about war, but afterwords she found her father’s grave…it’s the song for anti-war from personal life, make me moved a lot.“
The Blue Lotus – Xu Wei
“eine allgemeine Darstellung von einem geträumten Leben“
White Rabbit – George Benson
Save US – Khadja Nin
“Song that my mom was playing in the restaurant that my parents were running when I was about 5yo. This song stayed in my mind for years until I discovered very recently what the title of it actually is”
Short Hair – Cho Yongpil
Khalass
Poke Bowl – Radiant Children
“it’s a song that helped me going through a difficult time and even if it has passed, I still feel like it will always be part of me and it reminds me that there are always good moments after bad ones.“
Nazad, Nazad Kalino Mome – Anita Micevska
“This is a traditional Macedonian folk song. It is about an impossible love, about two lovers. A love that is not clear whether it is reciprocated by the man. The woman is totally in love with her lover and sings about what she would do to reach him and spend her life with him.
I don’t know how it is possible to describe my identity, I don’t know if it is possible for me to say that this song succeeds in describing me in my entirety. However, I am sure that the song manages to represent who I am when I am with my family and when my emotions are free.
This song in Macedonia is sung at folk festivals and in my case also when I am at home with my family, everyone starts singing it together and in this way a powerful energy is created, energy derived from the expression of a difficult love but that we want to cultivate. This moment binds us together, creates union and mutual understanding of emotions, especially those created by love.“
Zolf | محسن نامجو – زلف – Mohsen Namjoo
“it is eclectic, powerful, dreamingly lost and poetic.
this song gives me belief that differences and strangenesses, fears, conflicts and friction I experience in a cultural double life can flourish and be expressed playfully, lightly and with strength. one does not have to decide for a cultural identity, one can have many.“
Липы (Я тебя уведу)
“A recent discovery that caught me in the right moment and touched me. Two Russians – a poet and an electronic producer – collaborating.
Music always help to see past differences, no?“
On knowledge production – Prof. Lwazi Lushaba
“The transmission of spatial knowledge through song and dance – critical for a decolonial approach to education. The song was created by DJ Bonolo Thomas who uses a sound recording lecture by Dr. Lwazi Lushaba during the Rhodes Must Fall protests for a decolonial education at the University of Cape Town in 2015. I think this is something inspiring for other universities and active groups thinking about transformation and economical education.“
Sandalwood soap and florida water – Aising
“A song with Shanghai dialect
with the wet, sultry weather.“
This Thing – Jimpster, Rich Medina
“I remember the moment entering the place, seeing people from different countries endlessly moving together almost as a whole collective body. I remember feeling in the “right place” and the instant response of my body to the same movement. It is not about a specific song, but about the mood and its energy, and the connection to others through your body.“
Divine Créature – La Femme
“A longing that can never be satisfied
And in the process of it
You become your own shadow.“
Home – Hania Rani
Caribbean Blue – Enya
Que Sera Sera – Doris Day
“It was the first English song I heard when I was 8, at the wedding of my English teacher.“
Take it easy my brother Charles – Jorge Ben Jor
“ich habe das als kind viel gehört und es erinnert mich daran wie ich früher viel portugiesisch von meiner mutter und verwandten gehört habe“
Hey Mr.Nazi – Blumio, Don Tone
ABBA – John Mark Pantana
“Simple, accessible melody, I like to listen to it while other louange sounds are meant to sing with”
Girls just want to have fun – Bladee, Ecco2k
Noise – 天皇 (Tenno)
弘前城のしだれ桜 – TORI KUDO+HARUKO
Los gritos de Mexico
独角戏 – 許茹芸
“My father was in the army at the coast of Taiwan Strait and not so often at home until I was 5. This was the song my mother played and sang at home many times when I was a kid.“
Capoeira
“This whole music and dance culture has been created around forbidden capoeira training in Brazil.”
PianoSolo – Tori Kudo
Life – Feux
SekundoS 
Leave a Reply