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‘Expedition Content’: A journey of sound into West Papua
In this augmented sound work titled Expedition Content, American director and sound artist Ernst Karel together with Indonesian anthropologist Veronika Kusumaryati reflect on the Harvard Peabody Expedition, which took place in 1961 and lasted five months.
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A time to celebrate: This year's Berlinale marked the 70th anniversary of the Berlin International Film Festival. (Courtesy of Berlinale/-)
T
he joyous laughter of children at play, the lament of mourners at a funeral, the low rumble heralding a thunderstorm — audiences at this year’s German film festival Berlinale were first irritated, then intrigued by Expedition Content.
Directed by American director and sound artist Ernst Karel and Indonesian anthropologist Veronika Kusumaryati, this unique project relied solely on sound and did not present any visuals except for a few subtitles and a sequence that showed footage shot in a cage.
Festivalgoers found themselves sitting in a dimmed auditorium, but instead of seeing images flickering on the screen, they listened to the sounds that were recorded during the 1961 Harvard Peabody Expedition to Netherlands New Guinea, or West Papua today. At that time, it was still a Dutch colony.
“We were interested to see how sound is used in anthropology and how we use it to understand others,” said Veronika, who is currently a Harvard College Fellow in Anthropology and previously studied at the Jakarta Institute of Arts, majoring in Film and Media Studies.
“It also goes back to one of the fundamental questions of anthropology and subaltern studies: Can the subaltern speak? And the answer is, yes, it can, but are we actually listening?”
Expedition Content premiered at the Berlinale as part of the festival’s Forum Expanded section, which is characterized by reflections on the medium of film, socioartistic discourse and a sense for the aesthetic.
