Jessica Ekomane
Antechamber

KW In the conception of this piece, you focus on the relationality of time and rhythm to mathematics. During the period of developing your installation at KW, you have been part of the Berlin Artistic Research Program. As part of this program, you have been investigating forms of algorithmic composition, with specific regards to historically and culturally situated computation and African mathematical knowledge systems. Can you tell us a little bit more about this research?

JE  This research will likely be a lifelong process. I see it as a contextualization of my practice and the development of a better understanding of the technological environments we are dependent on—both in the past and the future. It has been making me more aware that we live in one possible technological universe among many, and that none of it is ideologically neutral or ahistorical. It has also become clear to me that there is a lack of knowledge about Black African contributions to that area. Antechamber was influenced by this because I became interested in finding ways to experience this multitude of contexts, through the act of counting the passage of time itself. 

KW The context in which we experience sound determines our habits of listening, both through its social and cultural impregnation. For you, this plays a significant role, as you aim to disrupt or challenge normative social listening habits. For example, in your compositional approach, you frequently encounter questions of tuning—either the tuning of instruments and sound systems, or the ability of an audience to “tune in” to sound, both physically and emotionally. What significance does this play for you and how is it reflected in your practice?

JE Musical tuning is another example of mathematical relationships that our body can experience, which also carries an additional depth through the socio-cultural context that surrounds it. On another level, the act of tuning—or “tuning in”—involves a context-specific adjustment that goes against arbitrary, brutal standardization, which is something that I address often in my work as well.

KW You have mentioned that you understand sound as a social practice, emphasizing the importance of your live gigs as a space for people to come together and listen—how does this social dimension influence your perspective on music and sound?

JE Concerts are moments of communion and catharsis. I find it fascinating that most cultures have music as a medium, and that it can exist even without any institutional framing. I think this has influenced my practice in the sense that my work is not object-based but rather experience and relationship-based. That, to me, is the main difference between a live show or an installation; it’s about time as matter and how we perceive it depending on context. There is a necessary difference in intensity that is created between a short, punctual event, and a process or situation unfolding over many months. I enjoy the high intensity and elusiveness of a live performance, but there are also emotional or intellectual states that can only be experienced through a longer engagement with a situation.

KW In another interview you mentioned that you started making electronic music only after you moved to Berlin in 2011. How has the city and its vibrant electronic music scene influenced your artistic practice?

JE Pragmatically speaking, the most decisive aspects of Berlin for me were the communities of musicians and artists that I encountered there, and the profusion of cultural offerings. I grew up with a working-class background in a village in central France. I went from a purely solitary experience of music with limited access to recordings, to discovering liveness in Berlin, simply through having access to that possibility. Back then, there were so many opportunities of seeing events and sharing one’s practice that it really felt natural to start developing my own.

KW In the conception of this piece, you focus on the relationality of time and rhythm to mathematics. During the period of developing your installation at KW, you have been part of the Berlin Artistic Research Program. As part of this program, you have been investigating forms of algorithmic composition, with specific regards to historically and culturally situated computation and African mathematical knowledge systems. Can you tell us a little bit more about this research?

JE This research will likely be a lifelong process. I see it as a contextualization of my practice and the development of a better understanding of the technological environments we are dependent on—both in the past and the future. It has been making me more aware that we live in one possible technological universe among many, and that none of it is ideologically neutral or ahistorical. It has also become clear to me that there is a lack of knowledge about Black African contributions to that area. Antechamber was influenced by this because I became interested in finding ways to experience this multitude of contexts, through the act of counting the passage of time itself. 

KW The context in which we experience sound determines our habits of listening, both through its social and cultural impregnation. For you, this plays a significant role, as you aim to disrupt or challenge normative social listening habits. For example, in your compositional approach, you frequently encounter questions of tuning—either the tuning of instruments and sound systems, or the ability of an audience to “tune in” to sound, both physically and emotionally. What significance does this play for you and how is it reflected in your practice?

JE Musical tuning is another example of mathematical relationships that our body can experience, which also carries an additional depth through the socio-cultural context that surrounds it. On another level, the act of tuning—or “tuning in”—involves a context-specific adjustment that goes against arbitrary, brutal standardization, which is something that I address often in my work as well.

KW You have mentioned that you understand sound as a social practice, emphasizing the importance of your live gigs as a space for people to come together and listen—how does this social dimension influence your perspective on music and sound?

JE Concerts are moments of communion and catharsis. I find it fascinating that most cultures have music as a medium, and that it can exist even without any institutional framing. I think this has influenced my practice in the sense that my work is not object-based but rather experience and relationship-based. That, to me, is the main difference between a live show or an installation; it’s about time as matter and how we perceive it depending on context. There is a necessary difference in intensity that is created between a short, punctual event, and a process or situation unfolding over many months. I enjoy the high intensity and elusiveness of a live performance, but there are also emotional or intellectual states that can only be experienced through a longer engagement with a situation.

KW In another interview you mentioned that you started making electronic music only after you moved to Berlin in 2011. How has the city and its vibrant electronic music scene influenced your artistic practice?

JE Pragmatically speaking, the most decisive aspects of Berlin for me were the communities of musicians and artists that I encountered there, and the profusion of cultural offerings. I grew up with a working-class background in a village in central France. I went from a purely solitary experience of music with limited access to recordings, to discovering liveness in Berlin, simply through having access to that possibility. Back then, there were so many opportunities of seeing events and sharing one’s practice that it really felt natural to start developing my own.