HIFI to LOFI Continuum is an artist talk, conversation and listening session that takes a (metaphorical) dive into an old dumpster to uncover the material politic of Music (and sound) and its predominant role within throw-away culture. The event traces out aspects of music’s material entanglements with humans and ecology by exploring the artist’s archive of experimental ‘how-to’ videos and her media archeological takes on the technology she finds in the garbage.

While eating popcorn and testing out a demo or two we will look into the artistic research findings of High Fidelity Wasteland, the artist’s sound-centric trilogy that experiments with the material waste left over from generations of decomposing sound reproduction technology. HIFI to LOFI Continuum culminates in a field trip to the iMAL exhibition Fin et début / Einde en begin for a listening session within High Fidelity Wasteland II: Protoplastic Groove — is an immersive sound installation consisting of a modified 1950s era record player that devolves the audible timescale of music from the past.

Darsha Hewitt (CA/DE) is an interdisciplinary artist that investigates the material politics of music and sound. She makes electromechanical sound installations, drawings, audio-visual works, how-to videos, sculptural installations and performative workshops that explore technological entanglements and their implications on humans and ecology.

With a media archeological perspective she explores sound beyond its sonic parameters through deconstruction of discarded technology. She focuses on the ethics of (planned) obsolescence and the practices of technology that consumer society throws away as a way to trace out systems of power, economy and control inherent throughout socio-techno infrastructures.

Alongside reverse engineering, restoration and aesthetic experiments with historically significant music technology, she works with retired industry technicians to learn disappearing tacit knowledge that she integrates into studio research and shares within the art and DIY technology context.

🔗 www.darsha.org
🔗 @dead9vbattery

Portrait by: Lena Maria Loose