Andrew Brooks presents 'the Noise of Crisis'
• Liz Pelly presents ‘Mood machine’[US] •
Making History Oral Again —
Penrith Miers Archive presents
‘a six hour Yuin Country compilation'
• Snake Bites Tail: Building Sonic Collectives Across South-East Asia featuring
Kristi MonfrIes (Liquid Architecture),
Zach Sch (Rắn Cạp Đuôi [VN]) &
Kuya Neil (CONTENT.NET.AU) •
Dana Dawud presents 'Monad+'
• Tina Stefanou presents 'You Can't See Speed'
Riar Rizaldi presents
'Notes from Gog Magog'
• Kate McGuiness presents
'I like long walks on Parramatta Road'
Hosted by Levent Can Kaya & Carmen Mercedes Gago Schieb
DISCOURSE
St. Barnabas Church, Ultimo
Day two of SOFT CENTRE’s 2025 festival program extends into an unmissable day of critical discussion, deep listening and experimental short films at the St Barnabas Church in Boradway. Key topics explored across the day include labour, automation, DIY, noise and the ever-present prefix “post-”.
Highlights include acclaimed music journalist Liz Pelly (US) who’s unsparing investigation into Spotify has challenged the way we understand music, listening, and streaming economies with her recent book 'Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist'. Beloved local lecturer and poet Andrew Brooks’ keynote considers noise — of protest, resistance, riots — to develop a politics of listening as solidarity in struggle. Yuin archivist Madika Penrith and ethnomusicologist Sam Miers launch their hundred track compilation of Yuin Country/Bateman’s bay in conversation with Prop Records Parateek ‘Toto’ Shorey. A panel discussion from Rắn Cạp Đuôi’s drummer Zach Sch, CONTENT.NET’s Kuya Neil, and Liquid Architecture’s director Kristi Monfries on building South-East-Asia exchanges and collectives, and what it means to make avant-garde and DIY music.
The screening program includes Dubai-based ‘internet cinema’-maker and 'open-secret' curator Dana Dawud (UAE), esteemed artist Tina Stefanou, New Pessimism founder Riar Rizani (ID), and local lore-seeker Kate McGuinness.
And finally, hosting us throughout the day is a collaborative friendship powerful enough to guide us through -THE DISCOURSE-; Levent Can Kaya, FBI radio host, and Carmen Schieb aka S.C.U.M, local noise enjoyer.