Paper
Between spirits and digital economies. Mediatization of marginalized performative practice.
presenters
Piotr Cichocki
Nationality: Poland
Residence: Poland
University of Warsaw
Presence:Face to Face/ On Site
Keywords:
sound, digital platforms, Malawi, shared practice
Abstract:
Concurrently with a research project on religious sound in Malawi's northern region, the author worked with local performers to record, post-produce, and digitally publish local music. Of particular focus for this presentation were recordings of spiritual practices known as vimbuza. Vimbuza are cohabitations with spirits that either enable healing, inspire divination, or negatively impact patients/dancers. As performances vimbuza were marginalized in the digitalized media sphere in northern Malawi. The local digital media was dominated by songs, film production, and music videos that circulated on social platforms and served as an exemplification of postcolonial public sphere division (Rauphu Mustapha, De Witte) dominated by church institutions.
The recording itself gathered drum players, vimbuza doctors, and local media experts as co-producers, but at the post-production stage it transcended geographical proximity and relied on online production. Subsequently, the recordings were distributed via services such as Bandcamp, iTunes, and Spotify, with performers benefiting from the entire profit generated through sales and streaming.
While refraining from idealizing the project, the presentation delves into its economic and technological aspects. The project epitomized a form of reciprocity between the ethnographer and the performers, facilitated by digital tools. The economic objectives of the project aligned with the articulated needs of marginalized performers. However, it initiated an ambivalent process of entangling performers in the digital global economy. At the same time, performers conceptually integrated these circulations into the practice of offerings for vimbuza spirits.
Regarding technologies of sound and image, the project encountered the risk of commodification, prompting both performers and the ethnographer to confront the utilization of standardized authenticity (Meintjes) and exploitative digital colonizing gaze (Alvares Astacio). To mitigate this threat, the recordings were developed to reflect both the local understanding of vimbuza and the "entangled forces that sustain coloniality" within the music business (Ndaliko) and the right to opacity.