Experiencing a Song: the Political and Aesthetic Possibilities of Art

Music has played a crucial role in recent Chilean history as a conduit for social and political demands.
Indeed, the mobilisations of 2019 were notable for the visibility acquired by artists and their
performances, and for activists who mobilised themselves through art. These protests were sparked
by an increase of metro fares, which led to systemic critiques of education, inequality and gender
disparity. These Chilean protests provide fruitful terrain for studying the political significance of
music for two main reasons; first, music has been a prominent feature in the history of Chilean
mobilisations; second, protests can be understood as an "organising experience" (Lembo, 2017) for
exploring how different actors interact with the same musical object.
The literature on the relationship between music and protest has tended to emphasise the political
message and concrete politica
l implications of works of art (Reed, 2005; Mathieu & Balasinski, 2006),
but has rarely considered how works of art can
interpellate
political subjects and transform how they
perceive and relate with themselves, others, and the world. To achieve this, through a relational
perspective this project intends to i) situate the songs that were present during the Chilean protests;
ii) identify the
music world
of protests, that is, the networks of actors linked to the songs, their
interactions and collaborations (Crossley, 2019); and iii) explore the actors' experiences to
comprehend if and how they entailed aesthetic and political transformations. As a result, my project
will contribute to discussions of everyday life by binding together the aesthetic dimension with political transformation, as well as adding to our understanding of activist art in the Chilean protests.