Rapturous Bodies: A Conversation with Camille Norment

Our senses, and in particular sound, can be reconsidered as gateways of knowledge, instruments of power, and sources of pain and of pleasure. Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that they are subject to dramatically different constructions in different societies and periods. Placing the sensory experience at the forefront of cultural analysis and activity has been one of the driving forces behind Camille Norment’s practice as a whole, and her project Rapture, in particular. Her practice has been inspired by the contextual relationships between sound and music, and her research critically explores the sociopolitical encoding of sound historically and in the present, reflecting upon the power of dissonance to carve out a space for new and affirmative thinking. Raising questions around alienation and emancipation, she excavates aspects of the forgotten or the repressed through a cross-disciplinary pursuit that draws from social, psychological, political, and cultural orientations, broadening and interweaving perspectives on how sound marks collective experience and affects our collective consciousness. In this interview, which spans across the last twenty years of her work, Camille Norment speaks with Office for Contemporary Art Norway curators Katya García-Antón and Antonio Cataldo to reveal the reasoning behind her artistic practice, which seeks to remystify the shaping of sound upon our collective consciousness.