Music and chanting are vital and unique elements of the Thaipusam festival in Singapore. Sound helps devotees to maintain an ecstatic state of mind and is also a form of collective expression — the result of walking in unison with families, friends, and musicians. Conceived as a listening session, this lecture explores the sonic textures of this living tradition. It also unpacks the process of documenting sound and moving images for Vel Vel: The Burden Dance as a way of understanding intangible aspects of heritage.


Speaker

Ramesh Krishnan is a sound designer, music creative, and DJ. His latest works have been featured at the Arts House Singapore, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, and Gwangju Design Biennale. As a founding member of Sistrum, Ramesh was part of the artist-in-residence programme at the Botanic Gardens for Nature Remixed (2022) and co-produced the highly acclaimed Vel Vel: A Sonic Walk (2021). His journey as a sound designer began in 2004 when he collaborated with Marseilles-based artist Mathieu Briand on Derrière Le Monde Flottant at the Musée d’art Contemporain in Lyon. In 2009, he created original compositions for the Quest for Immortality and Singapore 1960 exhibitions at the National Museum of Singapore by re-arranging historical recordings into experimental soundscapes. He is received the President’s Design Award in 2010.


Moderator

Noorashikin binte Zulkifli is Senior Curator for Islamic art at ACM. She developed the current Islamic Art gallery as part of ACM’s revamp, and curated the exhibition Ilm: Science and Imagination in the Islamic World (2016). Noora worked on the revamp of the Peranakan Museum, with a special interest in Muslim Peranakan communities. Before this, she was a curator at the Malay Heritage Centre in Kampong Gelam, Singapore’s historic Muslim quarter and port town. She holds an MA in Interactive Media and Critical Theory from Goldsmiths College. Noora’s research interests revolve around Islamic Southeast Asia with a focus on manuscripts and their related arts.


 

^{Image courtesy of Ramesh Krishnan.}


Organised in conjunction with the exhibition Body & Spirit : The Human Body in Thought and Practice