John Akomfrah: Conversations with Noise | Art21 "Extended Play"

When I first started, people
were always like,

"Oh man, you use so much sound,
so much music, isn't it a bit vulgar?"

And I'm like, yeah, yeah! [LAUGHS]

I like the vulgarity of it.

That's the point.
[LAUGHS]

The new comes into being via
this powerful way of vulgarity.

So I don't have a problem with vulgarity.

["The Unfinished Conversation" (2012)]

--Okay, so this is an important point.

--I think it's either that guy or that guy,

--one of them has a GoPro.

--Or just to say that his picture
might be completely rubbish,

--That's pretty close to where you were just then.

I'm interested also in just
the conversation between noise--

not just music, but noise.

The ways in which

noise

suggests

direction for images.

One of the things that I
learned very early on is that

there are sonic ways of knowing the world,

which are as important
as all the other ways.

As a young Black kid,
growing up in this country,

you'd go to one of these
nightclubs where they'll be playing

let's say, dub.

And over the course of two hours,

there would be you and a group of people,

and you will literally discover
each other in that music.

The music would license
these recognitions

that are not speech.

They're not about what you
say to each other at all.

But I'm also really
interested in the redemptive

possibilities that music offers.

["The Unfinished Conversation" (2012)]

My first or second year of university,

I'm standing by a window,
not really feeling great,

listening to BBC Radio 3,

and suddenly this music comes on

and it literally reconfigures my world.

It's by an Estonian
composer called Arvo Pärt.

["The Nine Muses" (2010)]

The music said,

"You are in this space,"

"and it is possible to occupy this space differently,"

"and I'm going to tell you how."

And it did.
[LAUGHS]

In the course of 16 minutes,

a new music composition
changed how I saw time,

and by implication, myself in it.

So I have a

profound

investment

in the sonic,

which comes across in the work.

But I was part of a group
that saw itself as a,

as a sort of audio, acoustic
experimental outfit.

I used a lot of music because
I liked the knowledges

they implied,

and I wanted them to give me
something that I can use to

talk to a narrative or
stories or histories.

What changes over the years
is the range, or the stuff.

So, initially "musique concrète."

["Mnemosyne" (2010)]

And then classical
pieces, operatic pieces.

["Tropikos" (2016)]

And now more and more folk forms.

["Auto da fé" (2016)]

The forms themselves and
the range of uses change.

But the investment in the
sonic is as long lasting

as the investment in images.

That's not going to change.