About

“Hectic, devastating, thoughtful and brilliant” - https://theserenadefiles.com/

“A portal to start decolonising ourselves, a pathway to express ecological grief, a gateway to connecting with the reality of climate change”

Anthropocene in C Major is a visceral experience of human impact on earth, felt through a live performance that turns data into sound and visuals. Over 45 minutes we travel from 12,000 years ago to the present, hearing human breakthroughs from the invention of the wheel to the Industrial Revolution and beyond... but also inescapable data trends that tell of our exploitation of the planet, and each other.

At what now seems like a breaking point for our species, what can we learn from listening to the past, and what meaning can this bring to our present and future? Anthropocene In C Major provokes a response to climate change for a species paralysed by its own extractive structures. It invites us to confront and understand our own ecological and systemic grief, through the form of sonification, and within the scale of our modern existence on Earth.

This performance features a new arrangement for live electronic ensemble, featuring University of Sussex Music students, Amelia Rubra, Dylan Chan, Mina-Mae Alexander, and Oscar Bussell led by Dr Danny Bright.

Panel: Art, Awareness, Action in the Anthropocene

Audiences are invited to join a post-show panel discussion. Jamie will be joined by academics, activists and local change-makers to reflect on the role of art in supporting awareness and inspiring action for transformational change.

Panel members include Aime Rai (ONCA), Prof Ann Light (CreaTures), Ellie Bullock (Hospitable Environments), Dr Jo Walton (SHL). Chaired by Sussex Humanities Lab co-director, Alice Eldridge.

Bio.

Jamie Perera is an artist who uses sound to represent objects in ways that create provoking experiences for listeners. His work explores radical deconstruction, re-imagining and reclamation, whilst challenging the conventions between music, sound and data.

He is the first artist to sonify the Holocene with the score "Anthropocene In C Major", now touring internationally, with excerpt "Oil, Coal & Gas for 3 Cellos" commissioned by the Serpentine's General Ecology Project. Other notable work includes sonifying Twitter with intersectional voices for the FT's COP26 Global Gallery, generating a sonic "elephant in the room" to highlight data privacy issues for Mozilla, representing deaths from Coronavirus in the UK in a twenty four day performance, using sound to show differences in conscious state with neuroscientist Anil Seth and creating a soundtrack out of guns for Amnesty International.

He is an associate of PRiSM, the RNCM Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music, and part of the Crossover Labs, Forma and Liquid Architecture Art collectives.

His passion is in challenging the conventions between music, sound and societal issues, whilst still making accessible work, and encouraging ‘happy accidents’ in interactions and creation.

The Sussex Humanities Lab is one of four flagship research programmes at the University of Sussex. SHL is concerned with the eco-socio-cultural potentials and impacts of an increasingly digital world. We experiment with digital methods in research and investigate the interactions between technology and culture, society and environment in order to imagine and create more sustainable and just futures for all.

This event is co-funded by the School of Media Arts and Humanities.