". . . the items on the ground that day were vibratory – at one moment disclosing themselves as dead stuff and at the next as live presence: junk, then claimant; inert matter, then live wire."

Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (2010)

"My question is whether a drawing can be a musical instrument . . ."

David Toop, Entities Inertias Faint Beings, published in Sound Objects (2019)

Objects live with us in intimacy, with a closeness that contradicts ideas such as inanimate or sentient. They are capacitors for memory. We will consider objects and materials as entities with a life of their own, as archival carriers and sensory triggers, as assemblages with complex intentions, as faint beings who can escape our notice. We collaborate with objects and materials, with consideration for their texture, duration, flexibility and other properties. They sharpen our attention. At every point we ask questions of our relationship with these properties: what can we learn from the stillness of an object, its slowness, its fragility, its emotional associations, its abjectness and humility? Can an object contain us or unlock us in performance? Can an object act as a familiar? What is its story?