The Serbian composer and sound artist Svetlana Maraš has remixed sounds, interviews, videos, and other material from the section of «desire» from the Norient exhibition Seismographic Sounds. Discover this audio mix full of humor, but also with some deep thoughts on the subjects of discrimination, sexuality, and individualism.

Working on this piece, I was thrilled to get to know so many interesting artists, and I think I shared a bit of this excitement through my composition too. I adopted some elements from their musical language with a certain distance that allowed me to view things from my own perspective. One of the requirements was that I used the materials provided by the Norient and this included plenty of music and also interviews with artists, so my favorite – «spoken word» material. I love working with this kind of material, and it’s by using the cut-up technique. It was important that I first understand the original context where these materials were coming from, and more deeply, the message that these artists were trying to send to the world… then I used samples of their music and excerpts from their talks, to convey a new message within my own piece. Which is not that far from their own. I think there’s a bit of humor in this piece, but also some deep thoughts on the subjects of discrimination, sexuality, individualism…

Desire (Introduction from Seismographic Sounds)

To desire someone from head to toe with a burning passion might be similar in feeling as it is to long for a better world. Music videos are desiring machines and can perfectly stage this deep yearning. Videos can, for example, challenge, parody or overcome prescribed conventions of sex, gender, desire and stereotyped role attributions. In search of a way to express their complex identities, the musicians and artists we introduce in this chapter vehemently demand: Stick to your desire! Feel at home in your own body! Defend yourself! In order to adhere to these demands, they create their own audiovisual profiles that are nostalgic or utopian microcosms, thoughtful or playful collages. In their lyrics they reflect upon very different dimensions of desire: one song encourages other women to finally end unhappy relationships, the other calls for a revolution for a more equal world. So, for this chapter we assume that desire is not restricted to the personal alone. It can be a political weapon as well.