Reading habits are declining rapidly across the world, a reality which testimonies gathered in numerous surveys confirm. That cherished image of a solitary reader at the corner of the library or at the bedside table of a room glowing brightly under a night lamp is slowly fading away. It is replaced by the audiovisual excess of the public media blinded by its misplaced politics of attention and exhibitionism. A silent act of reading is invaded by the buzz of everyday technologies and the internet of things. Shall we rethink how we read? Can the solitary self of silent reading be joined by many who are still committed to words as pluriverses? Can interpreting by semantic coding and decoding while looking at all the dancing images and alphabets on the pages of a book be turned vociferous? When we read aloud, adding sounds to the silent words, the reading becomes socially distributed, like the rituals of chants, mantras, or Azaan. The voicing of words may lead to giving multiplicity of meaning and positions in regard to the text as a shared act of resistance against oblivion in an age of inattention and chaos. This session at Rewire festival invites readers to engage with a particular text: a forthcoming book Sonic Perspectives from the Global Souths: Unheard Reciprocity, Resonant Relationality, and Aural Confluence ( 2026) aurally, reading together select passages from the book as a shared concern for a planetary equity. 

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is a media artist, researcher, and writer. Chattopadhyay produces large-scale installations and live performances addressing issues of environment and ecology, migration, race, and decoloniality. He is the author of five books including The Nomadic Listener (2020) and The Auditory Setting (2021). He currently is a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Contemporary Art, University of Bergen.