For Jonathan Crary, the 24/7 pulse of attention demand and work constitutes ‘a time of indifference, against which the fragility of human life is increasingly inadequate and within which sleep has no necessity or inevitability’. The framing of 24/7 — from on-demand rolling news to social media and increasingly precarious labour patterns — normalises ‘the idea of working without pause, without limits’ (Crary). This conception of endless availability and accumulation is inextricable from the kinds of capitalist growth and extraction which have instigated planetary-scale levels of ecological crisis. In this workshop, we question the assumptions behind sleep, circadian rhythms and everyday life primarily through the means of sound. We explore how and why human and nonhuman animals sleep, what is at stake in how we understand rest time and what environmental factors affect it.
Somnolent Cartographies traces the contours of space, time and sound within daily life, reprioritising the vitality of sleep through personal and environmental contexts. Drawing on poetry, sonic arts, ecological theory and philosophy, our day long experience offers practical, creative and critical interventions in the essential art of slumber. Asking what can we learn from the sleep habits of whales, how does locality and place influence the quality of sleep and what kinds of perceptive awareness sleep enables, we will dive right into the oceanic feeling of more-than-human zzzzzzzz’s.
Open to anyone, the day will be of particular interest to those with a curiosity for sleep, environmental thinking and the sonic arts.
About the organisers:
Dr Kevin Leomo is a Scottish-Filipino composer of experimental music interested in silence, fragility, perception, and liminality. His practice involves collaboration, improvisation, listening practices, non-standard notation, and working cross-culturally. He runs the experimental music collective Sound Thought and is the Community and Engagement Manager for the College of Arts at the University of Glasgow.
Dr Maria Sledmere is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde, editor-in-chief of SPAM Press and a Tutor in English Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Her most recent publication is An Aura of Plasma Around the Sun (Hem Press, 2023), a work of poetry, fiction and oneiric memoir. She is a member of A+E Collective and her book Cinders, a poetry collection about fire, hospitality and petro-femininity, is forthcoming with KRUPSKAYA in 2024.
Ane Lopez works as a Programme Facilitator for the artist-run initiative Market Gallery, and is the co-founder of A+E, a collective of artists playfully working together towards a post-oil vision. A postgraduate from Glasgow School of Art, Ane studied Communication Design and has recently collaborated with film festivals such as Take One Action and Femspectives as an artist and programmer.
Registration is free, and upon signup participants will be sent a link to optional preparatory reading.
We encourage where possible that attendees stay for the full duration of the day, in order to gain the full impact of interdisciplinary discussion and creative experience.
Schedule:
- 09:45 — Welcome and coffee reception
- 10:00 — Introduction
- 10:30 — Icebreaker Activity: Nonhuman Sleep
- 11:00 — Break
- 11:15 — Workshop 1: Sleep Factors
- 12:15 — Break
- 12:30 — Workshop 2: Sonic Cartographies + Film Screening
- 13:30 — Lunch (provided by Parveen’s Canteen)
- 14:30 — Deep Listening
- 14:45 — Unstructured move-around time: Ambient scoring, Sound walk, Nap station, Guided listening
- 16:00 — Plenary Discussion
Catering Info:
Affordable and delicious Pakistan-inspired cuisine can be purchased at the venue’s canteen, Parveen’s.
Free water, tea and coffee will be provided throughout the event. Vegetarian and vegan food will be provided, but please let us know if you have any other dietary requirements.
Accessibility Info:
This workshop will involve a mix of individual writing, group discussion, drawing, listening, film screening and moving around the space (including an option to walk outside, weather-permitting). We will make use of two rooms, and participants are free to drop in and out (using the Project Space as a quiet room) as needed.
We will be using the ground floor of Civic House, in both the Project Space and Venue.
The ground floor has 1 x accessible toilet, 1 x mixed block with 3 open cubicles.
Further details about the venue can be found here.
If there is any accessibility information you would like us to know about ahead of the workshop, please contact kevin.leomo@glasgow.ac.uk.
Transport Links:
- Bus: No. 7, 68, 71A, 72, 75 and M3 bus routes from Buchanan Bus Station (Garscube Road bus stop).
- Subway: 3 min walk from Cowcaddens subway station, 7 Minute walk from St George’s Cross subway station.
- Train: 7 min walk from both Charing Cross and Queen Street Train Station.
- Car: 2 minute drive from M8 motorway (Junction 17)
- Bike: NextBike station 15 min walk from Civic House heading north on Garscube Road.
Funding:
This workshop is generously funded by the UKRI’s National Environment Research Council, with thanks to Civic House, the University of Glasgow, the Dear Green Bothy and A+E Collective.
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Poster by Ane Lopez