Anna Papaeti: Soundscapes of Detention: Music, Sound, and the Ethics of Listening.

Soundscapes of Detention: Music, Sound, and the Ethics of Listening Anna Papaeti (University of Cyprus) Carceral sites are forms of institutional power; they are also sites of struggles. In such settings voice, sound, and silence can transform the experience of detention either negatively or positively, or both. Tuning into the soundscapes of detention, turning ourselves into ear-witnesses to the extent that we can, allows us to see the workings of carceral power but also the dynamic of the sonic experience. In this paper, I explore the Makronissos prison camps (from 1947 to 1949) during the civil war period in Greece, as well as the Athens-based detention centres and prisons of the dictatorship that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974. Drawing on archival research and interviews I conducted with former political prisoners, I focus on such notions as sonic enclosure and acoustic witnessing. Emphasis is given on the discrepancies that mark trauma testimony, exploring the process of bearing witness with regard to the ethics of listening. Kommentar: Janis Nalbadidacis (HU Berlin) Anna Papaeti (PhD, King’s College London) is Research Associate Professor at the University of Cyprus and Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant Soundscapes of Trauma: Music, Sound, and the Ethics of Witnessing (MUTE). She writes about the nexus of music, sound, and trauma, as well as the intersections of politics, ethics, and aesthetics. She held two Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowships at the University of Goettingen (2011–2014, FP7) and at Panteion University, Athens (2017–2019, H2020). Her research has also been supported by DAAD, Onassis Foundation, and the Centre for Research for the Humanities, Athens. She has published in edited volumes and journals, and co-edited two special issues on music in detention. She is also a research-based-art practitioner, working in sound and textual forms. She created the podcast The Undoing of Music (Madrid: Museo Reina Sofía, 2019), and the installations The Dark Side of the Tune (Athens: Onassis Stegi, 2016) and New Parthenon (Loutraki, 2019), both created with Nektarios Pappas.