Lawrence Abu Hamdan's 'Overdub' at mor charpentier Examines Acoustic Violence Through Forensic Sound

Lawrence Abu Hamdan's exhibition 'Overdub' transforms sound into a forensic tool for measuring erasure and acoustic violence at mor charpentier in Paris until May 4. The show functions like a laboratory, using 3D-printed spectrographs, echographies, and cathode-ray televisions to study neutralized accents, destroyed homes, and silenced witnesses. A key work, 'Waterfalls (India, Haiti, Philippines, Pakistan)' (2026), created with the sound-investigation collective Earshot, addresses AI technology used in call centers to flatten workers' accents in real time, producing a 'voice without a place.' The installation features four 3D-printed spectrograms representing dialects from those countries, with light distinguishing original from altered voices. Another piece, 'Echography of Tel Al-Sultan,' applies ultrasound imaging techniques to Gaza's changing soundscape since October 2023, measuring destruction through before-and-after visualizations where hard surfaces appear white and free sound passages black. The exhibition concludes with 'Planned Obsolescence,' which presents the last images captured by cameras and journalists before their destruction on cathode-ray televisions, framing the work as a tribute to persistent free information. Abu Hamdan's approach insists that suppressed realities do not disappear entirely from perception, focusing on territories transformed from rural communities to devastated zones by 2025.