Invitation to a talk at 4.30 pm on 24th September (Saturday) in the Committee Room, Central Library, JNU.

[JNU ML]

Dear Friends

JNU Forum For Mutual Learning Invites you to a talk to be delivered by Silpa Mukherjee, a P.hD. scholar in Cinema Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU. The title of the paper is 'HIGH OCTAVE SOPRANO TO AUTOTUNED RAPPER: TECHNOLOGIES OF SONIC EROTICISM, LOUDNESS AND ITEM
NUMBERS.' All of you are cordially invited to join us at 4.30 pm on 24th September (Saturday) in the Committee Room, Central Library, JNU. The abstract of the paper is given below.

Abstract

The item number, a micro-filmic musical form, has been shaped by a wide range of intersecting influences: 1990s B films, fashion industry, music video culture and 24*7 music television format introduced in globalized India, it foregrounds the body as a transgressive force.* I locate the sensual affect of the item number in its sonic template. As hypersexualized musical numbers, they exude a certain kind of sexiness that I contend comes from the pitch of the voices singing them. The loud, screaming voice of the singer of item numbers renders sonic visibility to the otherwise invisible female pleasure in sex. The soprano’s scream is a disembodied gesture of erotic pleasure that the female dancer is denied on screen. The talk will trace the auditory journey of the item number in terms of the sonic-machinery that produces it, questioning the relevance of the voice’s inherent loudness in conjuring the sexy, when the digital enables pitch correction and infinite stretching of the volume, viz. the auto-tuned aesthetic of the rapper tone. DJs, rappers, playback sopranos, and mixing engineers will be the assembling figures of this paper. The technical matrices of its circulation, digital sound amplification and the performative charge of the item number thus conjure a new sonic ecology that heightens the wildness that is associated with its loud sound.


*The name item number (special song and dance sequences) is probably derived from the term “item” (nowadays used for petite gay men as well), the Bombaiya equivalent of the slang “looker”, the worst way of objectifying a human body by disintegrating it into individual units (items). Item numbers tend to be big budget productions, like standalone attractions that are staged to have a life independent of the narrative. The production economy for these dances are intricately designed with special focus on sets, costumes, make-up, digital technologies for lighting, music, cinematography and editing. 

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Regards,

Convener 

JNU Forum for Mutual Learning

Central Library, Jawaharlal Nehru University

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