[spectre] TRACING UNDERCURRENTS: Sonic Routes Between

[nat muller]

dear simon,

thank you for your comment.
as the organiser and curator of this event, and as someone who has 
lived in israel, and is quite familiar with its  various discourses,  
AND as someone who has always been highly critical (and vocal) about 
israel's politics of occupation and dispossesion, i feel i need to 
position myself.  being an *israeli imperialist* as you put it, is def. 
not my position!  whoaw!

i think everyone on the list knows about the *indigenous* people who 
have lived in Palestine, that is a superfluous comment. nor  do i think 
this PR blurb propagates a Golda Meir-like stance.  let me make clear 
that there is NO acceptance of israeli imperialism within this program, 
and i am very sorry you read that into this announcement.  there are a 
few points i would like to clarify before being further accused of 
having internalised the evils of zionism.

1. many of the non-jewish/non-immigrant population of what now is 
israel will absolutely NOT want to be labelled as israelis, even if 
they hold israeli citizenship. so when i say *israeli* i indeed mean 
jewish israeli, since i know many non-jewish holders of israeli 
citizenship who will identify themselves as palestinian, bedouin, etc.
  i think you are doing a reductive misreading when coupling the remark 
about israel's  (and hereby i mean the jewish state founded in 1948) 
characteristics of being an immigrant society to being the identity 
marker of israeli sound artists.  i was not making making an 
identitarian comment about sound artists, but  merely in a concise 
PR-like blurb trying to make a point about the arts and 
electronic/experimental music scene in a country that - like or not - 
historically and still at present is one of immigration.

if you would take the trouble to read the bios of a.o. zvukoprocessor 
and DJ blondie, you will see that yes...they actually do make a point 
about identity and their backgrounds, and use these elements in their 
work.  this is not to say they are reduced to and being represented as 
being solely *immigrants*.

2. this is obviously a curated program, and does not make any comments 
about ALL sound artists in the region, nor does it claim to to that. it 
does not aspire to be representative of the region, nor does it claim 
to do that:  it very specifically focuses on te electronic sound scene 
in jerusalem and tel-aviv.  and as the text says it is a sample of the 
kind of work being done.

3. let us not forget that the reality in israel is such that there is 
little (friendly) rub between jews and non-jews. for the type of music 
i wanted to bring to de melkweg it so happened that all artists turned 
out to be *israelis*. yes, i could've made a program called *sonic 
routes between ramallah and tel-aviv*, but then that would have been a 
completely different program, with a completely different sounds, and a 
completely different agenda, and would have needed a different context.

hope this clarifies!

cheers!

nat

On Oct 9, 2005, at 13:43, Simon Biggs wrote:

> Israel (Palestine) also includes a large population of indigenous 
> people -
> Palestinians and other groups who have lived in Palestine for 
> generations.
> Are we to assume that all Israeli sound artists are happy to be so
> represented - defined as Israeli's due to their immigrant status, 
> separate
> to those who are indigenous to the region but who, within this 
> definition,
> are not Israeli and are thus unable to represent the region (for as
> non-Israeli's (as non-immigrants), and in the absence of any other
> recognised national identity, they have no identity at all). The 
> explicit
> acceptance of Israeli imperialism evident in this statement is 
> breathtaking.
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> On 09.10.05 11:00, "spectre-request at mikrolisten.de"
> <spectre-request at mikrolisten.de> wrote:
>
>> TRACING UNDERCURRENTS invites you to sample the diversity of the
>> Israeli experimental sound scene.
>>
>>  Israel, being a country of immigrants boasts a culturally rich and
>> diverse tradition. However, more often than not these expressions have
>> been limited to the more traditional arts. 
>
>
>
> Simon Biggs
> simon at littlepig.org.uk
> http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
>
> Professor, Art and Design Research Centre
> Sheffield Hallam University, UK
> http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/cri/adrc/research2/
>
>
>
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_______--//
Nat Muller // free-lance curator // critic // organiser // 
delight-maker//foodie
Willebrordusstr. 109 D // 3037 TN Rotterdam, .nl_____
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