Julian Jonker
Julian Jonker is a writer, sound artist and cultural producer. He has written about law and memory in post-apartheid Cape Town, intellectual property and indigenous knowledge, and carnival and performance traditions in South Africa. He is currently writing a cultural history of silence.
Jonker performed as a DJ for ten years, and was a founding member of the Fong Kong Bantu Sound System. Since then, his interests in intellectual property and authorship have led him into more conceptual investigations of the techniques and possibilities of studio-based music and sonic art. His installation with Ralph Borland, “Song of Solomonâ€, took as its theme the copyright and authorship disputes around the song alternately known as ‘Mbube’/‘Wimoweh’/ ‘The lion sleeps tonight’, and centred on a software-based aleatoric, algorithmic remix of many of the hundreds of cover versions and descendants of this well known song. It was exhibited at the Durban Art Gallery.
Jonker has also worked as a cultural producer. He helped coordinate the first conference of the CAPE biennial, has organised many music and spoken word festivals, and has acted as project manager of the Western Cape Street Bands Association, an NGO dedicated to the development potential of Cape Town’s indigenous carnival traditions.
He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Julian Jonker ….
is curating for
SoundLAB – sonic art project environments
Edition V – soundSTORY
the contribution from South Africa
featuring soundart works by
Brendon Bussy
Garth Erasmus
Neo Muyanga
James Webb & James SeyJames WebbRighard Kapp
Brydon Bolton
Julian Jonker