ABSTRACT
The links between sound and curation are often not clearly delineated, given the ephemeral, invasive and immaterial properties of vibrating waveforms. Indeed, some sound curators even argue against the idea of curating sound, wary of curatorial impulses becoming oppositional to the instability and freedom required to respond to sound waves. It is clear that the line between ethnographic and commercial sound recordings is becoming increasingly blurred, generating ripe listening conditions to explore the ethics of representation, hybridity and ownership. Anthropological curators listening closely to the visionary African artists developing their own street theatre, sound art, and Pan-African art spaces, can help document the very performances that activate and expand the notion of sound collections, while simultaneously transforming archives into more actively mobile collections and spaces for ideas that will increasingly be able to respond to live art.
