Inaudible, (Un)heard: Repurposing Media Technologies to Speak Across and Beyond Time and Distance

How might we speak to the dead?The nonhuman?Can they speak back?And what does it mean to do so?What technologies or devices are required to facilitate this communication?This thesis looks at two devices-the wind phone (kaze no denwa), a disconnected rotary telephone set inside a traditional booth erected in a garden overlooking the ocean in tsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, one of the towns most affected by the 2011 tsunami, and Ayum-ee-aawach Oomamamowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991), a giant wooden megaphone built by Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore in response to the 1990 "Oka Crisis" or Kanehsat:ke Resistance.The first, the wind phone, was initially built by tsuchi resident, Itaru Sasaki, to speak with a cousin who died of cancer.Following the tsunami, however, it became a means for others to speak to the dead and has even inspired the creation of other wind phones in various locations around the world.The second device, the megaphone, was toured to various Indigenous communities, and sites of land disputes, transported in Belmore's van across 'Canada.'Since then, it has been used as part of many other ceremonies and protests, as well as a few museum exhibitions; it was recently installed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts [MMFA].Instead of being aimed at the government, however, the megaphone was turned towards the land itself, in Belmore's words, "so that [Indigenous] people could speak to our Mother, to the Earth."In examining these two devices, this thesis shows how communication with the dead and "other-than-human kin" can be made possible through the repurposing of these analogue communication technology.Dually displaced, in function and location, the telephone and the megaphone, I argue, are reimagined as instruments of affective labour, alternate technological innovations that carry voices across immeasurable distances and establish lines of communication with absent interlocutors who refuse to or cannot listen (under common understandings).As such, while mobilizing the iii common use, function, and physical form of each technology, they reinterpret the practical nature and put the forms to different use.iv Rsum Comment pouvons-nous parler aux morts?Aux non-humains ?Peuvent-ils nous rpondre ?Et qu'est-ce que cela signifie de le faire ?Quelles technologies ou quels dispositifs sont ncessaires pour faciliter cette communication ?Quels lieux ?Des rituels ?Des crmonies ?Comment le fait de parler ces interlocuteurs peut-il animer ou enchanter leurs corps et, en retour, confrer aux morts et aux non-humains un rle actif ?Cette thse s'intresse deux dispositifs : le tlphone vent (kaze no denwa), un tlphone rotatif dconnect plac l'intrieur d'une cabine traditionnelle rige dans un jardin surplombant l'ocan tsuchi, dans la prfecture d'Iwate, au Japon, l'une des villes les plus touches par le tsunami de 2011, et Ayum-ee-aawach Oomamamowan : Speaking to Their Mother (1991), un mgaphone gant en bois construit par l'artiste anishinaabe Rebecca Belmore en rponse la "crise d'Oka" de 1990 ou rsistance de Kanehsat:ke.Le premier, le tlphone vent, a t initialement construit par Itaru Sasaki, un habitant de tsuchi, pour parler avec un cousin dcd d'un cancer.Aprs le tsunami, cependant, il est devenu un moyen pour d'autres personnes de parler aux morts et aux disparus et a mme inspir la cration d'autres tlphones vent dans divers endroits du monde.Le second, le mgaphone de Belmore, a t fabriqu la suite de l'utilisation par le gouvernement canadien de la puissance militaire contre le peuple mohawk au Qubec.Il a ensuite fait l'objet d'une tourne dans divers lieux de protestation (et a ensuite t install au Muse-des-Beaux-Arts de Montral [MBAM]).Cependant, au lieu d'tre dirig vers le gouvernement, le mgaphone tait tourn vers la terre elle-mme, selon les mots de Belmore, "afin que les peuples [autochtones] puissent parler notre mre, la Terre."En examinant ces deux appareils, cette thse montre comment la communication avec les morts et les non-humains est rendue possible par la raffectation de la technologie de communication tlphonique analogique.Dplacs la fois dans leur fonction et v leur emplacement, le tlphone et le mgaphone sont ici rimagins comme des instruments de travail affectif, des innovations technologiques alternatives qui transportent les voix travers des distances incommensurables et tablissent des lignes de communication avec des interlocuteurs absents qui refusent ou qui ne peuvent pas couter (selon les conceptions communes).Cependant, chacune de ces technologies remet en question ce que signifie couter et qui a accs l'coute.Il s'agit de l'audience, des destinataires ambigus des appels tlphoniques, et des demandes exprimes par le mgaphone.have spent the last two years learning and growing here with you all.To Christian, who accompanied me on many late nights, who read countless tangled drafts, and who patiently endured (more than) a few frustrated meltdowns.Through it all, you continued to support, encourage, and believe in me.This is for you, thank you endlessly.Bee and Dennis.Without our meandering study days, often punctuated with interludes of tangential chatter and big laughter, I would not have finished this thing.Those interludes guided me through and continually reminded me why we study.I cherish and hold dear our friendship and conversation.Lastly, to my family, and especially to my parents, I am immeasurably grateful for your unending love, support, and of course, impassioned dinner table debates.Thank you for giving me the space and opportunity to figure myself out.vii Can the past be heard in the present?What or who speaks or makes a sound?-Jacques Khalip, "'The Archaeology of Sound': Derek Jarman's Blue and Queer Audiovisuality in the Time of Aids" am I hearing voices within a voice ?but isn't the truth of the voice to be hallucinated ?isn't the entire space of the voice an infinite one ?-Roland Barthes, "The Grain of the Voice" the Kanehsat:ke resistance. 2 In 1992, Belmore toured the megaphone to various Indigenous communities, and sites of land disputes, transporting it in a van across 'Canada.'Since then, it has been used as part of many other ceremonies and protests, as well as a few museum exhibitions; it was recently installed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts [MMFA].During the megaphone's tour in 1992, Belmore explained that, instead of aiming the megaphone at the 2 I put "Oka Crisis" in quotations to indicate as some indigenous people and allies believe that the use of crisis does not exemplify the unjust, uneven, and disproportionate use of force used against Indigenous resistance fighters in this instance and throughout history.Referring to this event and its ongoing repercussions as the resistance at Kanehsatake or the Kanehsat:ke Resistance centers the defenders of the land as opposed to the term crisis which makes it seem more like an even battle.During the summer of 1990, the Oka municipality proposed to expand a golf course onto Kanien'keh:ka (Mohawk) land in Kanehsat:ke, Quebec.The expansion would place the golf course on top of their traditional burial grounds and also entail tearing down sacred Pines.When the Kanien'keh:ka people rejected and protested this plan, the government of Quebec and the government of Canada responded by sending the provincial and national police force and shortly after using military power against the Kanien'keh:ka land defenders and the traditional "Warrior" society.For a comprehensive description and analysis of this event, see Audra Simpson, Mohawk Interruptus

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