Wild Inside Itself: Circularity and Neo-liberal Critique in Marina Rosenfeld’s Deathstar Series

Abstract The work of Brooklyn-based sound artist Marina Rosenfeld (b. 1968) is shaped by repetition. Its repetitiveness does not necessarily materialise on the level of repeating musical notes or motifs – although such instances do occur – but operates on a more conceptual level: it repeats in the sense of the artist deliberately ‘going back’ to revisit archival materials. This article focuses on Rosenfeld’s Deathstar series (2017–) and uses repetition as its main heuristic tool. How, what, and why does this project repeat? And more importantly, how does its repetitiveness meaningfully confront the contemporary? Reading Deathstar alongside the work of contemporary thinkers such as Anna Kornbluh, Tim Ingold, Mark Fisher, and Rosi Braidotti allows the theorisation of its repetitive aesthetics as an act of neo-liberal critique; a means of sonically thinking through and providing alternatives to the many circular and loop-based dynamics that underpin the socioeconomic realities of the new millennium.