May 2018
Politics of the Machines - Art and After (EVA Copenhagen)
Digital arts and culture
15 - 17 May 2018
Aurality, Eroticism, Cyborg, ASMR, BDSM, Sound Studies, Sound Art, Contemporary Art
This paper examines the sensory mechanics of the Velcro hook-and-loop fastener and its use as a sound object in contemporary sound-based art and the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) community. With the neologism, BDSMR, I attempt to unpack the notion of velcro as a sound-fetish object by situating it within an emerging audio-visual culture, one that engages in cyborgian practices of sensory stimulation and optimizable arousal. Exploring these new modes of “listening in on“ materials—oftentimes with disembodied binaural ears—we reveal the ways in which the dynamics of the sound object reorientate our understanding of the sensate body and its relationship to the eroticism of aurality. In doing so, I present my own Velcro-based sound sculptures in an attempt to form a dialogue with the velcro material as an artistic medium.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/