Dub Sound Systems, Dhikr on Loudspeakers and the Politics of Amplification

Part screening, part listening session, part conversation, Dub Sound Systems, Dhikr on Loudspeakers and the Politics of Amplification is curated by Sarah El Miniawy in response to Joe Namy’s Cosmic Breath. 

This event brings together artist GAIKA and artist-filmmaker Mahdy Abo Bahat in a conversation moderated by El Miniawy to trace the affinities between Moulid and Carnival through shared practices of amplification and temporary congregation.  

Moulid endures as a counter-hegemonic practice, where Sufi transcendence becomes durational gathering and spectacle, sustained by the physical force of amplified sound. In these moments, dhikr, the act of remembrance in Islam, is felt differently by reciters, listeners and the urban landscape itself. Likewise, in London’s Carnival dub sound systems create an alternate environment within the city that gathers bodies around bass and volume, taking up space and amplifying communities that refuse to be erased.  

Rather than looking for a common genealogy, El Miniawy, GAIKA, and Abu Bahat will explore parallels across geographies when those on the margins temporarily occupy the centre through sound. Amplification and its technologies emerge as both sonic and social practice—from loudspeaker dhikr to dub bass—and the sound system as a temporary architecture for gathering. 

Doors open at 5.30pm; event starts at 6pm and ends at 8pm. 

Image credit: still from عـذر الوزة (The Goose's Excuse), 2023. A film by Mahdy Abo Bahat and Abdo Zin Eldin.