Syrian Humming Project
Humming of Syrian People and Artistic Responses, 2019-Present
As a part of GCRF-funded project called Syrian Food Futures, Syrian Humming Project is a sound art project that aims to tap into the personal and collective memories on food and daily life of displaced Syrian people through humming.
Syrian Humming Project continues to evolve since its pilot project which ran between 2019-2020. For the pilot project, we asked Syrian families displaced in various countries, including Turkey, Germany, France, and Scotland to send their hums and songs online. You can listen to snippets of these hums from Syrian Humming.
Following these hums, Suk-Jun Kim created ten short humming pieces based on some of them, which you can listen to from First Responses. First Responses also uses images and quotes from From the Field, another sister project on Food Security in Syria and the Impact of COVID-19 on displaced Syrian communities. Second Responses, in partnership with arthereistanbul, is a collection of works by Syrian artists who responded to the hum pieces by Suk-Jun Kim. These consist of songs, another series of responding hums, a video work, an illustration and other creative outputs.
As part of ‘Voices from the Syrian Academic Community: Unique local insights & contributions to research, policy and practice’, a 5-day online Cara Syria Programme Symposium (6-10 Dec. 2021) supported by Royal Society and British Academy, we presented our project “Syrian Humming Project”
Third Responses, which have been completed in early 2022 with the support from the University of Aberdeen and the Aberdeen City Council, showcases commissioned works of film, music, image and storytelling by Syrian artists in collaboration with Kim. These responses were exhibited simultaneously at arthere, Istanbul, Turkey and The Anatomy Rooms, Aberdeen, UK in April 2022.
We would like to thank all of those who offered hums, those who helped us collect them, and the artists who responded to these hums.
Hums & songs by displaced Syrian families and Syrian artists, Idea & humming pieces by Suk-Jun Kim. For other humming project, visit Humming Project.