Aural Oral by Grace Denis

Aural Oral explores a meal in the form of a sonic and performative moment in agricultural research, proposing a sensorial reflection of both processes of cultivation and consumption. The meal pairs an auditory archive of its ingredients with its ingestion; each accompanying track sketches a sonic cartography of the dish, amplifying the micro-actions of both the farm and the kitchen through the implementation of various microphones. The ambient soundscape posits an examination of subtle processes, offering a sensorial relationship with the meal that extends beyond the domain of the gustatory. These tracks explore the effervescent and symphonic realm of mezcal fermentation, followed by the fabrication of an ancestral soilbed technique implementing mud solely accessible via canoes in the lacustrine ecosystem of Xochimilco. The piece continues with amalgamated sounds of cooking with fire that presents a recipe as a musical score, followed by the juxtaposition of whirring cars and melodic bumbling of bees inherent to an urban garden that propose a reflection on the contrasting momentums of the urban and transposed-rural. All recordings were created for a performance at Museo El Eco during Material Art Fair in Mexico City and feature collaborations with Cocina Colaboratorio, Chinampa Tlazolteotl, Huerto Tlatelolco, and Yola Mezcal. Sound engineering by Grainger Gustafson