Voices in the Gallery: Reading Unseen Texts
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Humanities
Abstract
Writing has been essential in driving contemporary art forward since the middle of the 20th century. However, where once
we entered galleries to find words displayed on walls or in vitrines, now we are encountering language in the artworld in a
qualitatively different way. Art's literary content is entering the gallery as sound, through the medium of the recorded
voice, as artists are drawn increasingly to present texts in the form of voiceover.
The concept of voiceover is familiar to us from documentary film, but video, installation and new media artists are pushing the format in new and unexpected directions. Voices in the Gallery aims to carry out the first investigation of the voiceover as a phenomenon that exists simultaneously as art-form, literary genre and sonic intervention. By bringing together ideas and perspectives from art, literature and sound studies, it will deliver an original, interdisciplinary theory of voiceover. This project will use the voiceover as a medium by which to explore how writing operates in art practices today:
Why is the human voice so pervasive in contemporary art? How do audiences engage with voiced writing? How does vocalization affect our experience of language-driven artworks in the gallery? How can we critically assess the literary and aesthetic features of a voiceover track? How can galleries equip listeners to 'read aurally': to interpret vocalized text that remains unseen?
In answering these questions, this project will produce a range of academic and non-academic outputs and activities. My research presentations and article will establish a new field of crossdisciplinary inquiry. My agenda-setting monograph will shape how artists, institutions and critics make, curate and analyze voiceover in future.
Partnership with creative industries is integral to this project. The research will be carried out in collaboration with engagement, exhibitions and public programming professionals at Nottingham Contemporary and John Hansard Gallery. These organizations combine international reputations for curating the most innovative contemporary art with a profound commitment to engaging diverse local audiences. By embedding ongoing research in the galleries, and engendering dialogue and exchange between arts professionals and HE, the project will mobilize insights from the research to open entry points into language-driven arts practices. Close listening workshops and study sessions will invite participants to explore new ways of experiencing and interpreting voiced writing in art. Broadside leaflets freely distributed in galleries, will guide and enrich audiences' experiences of voiceover. An off-site exhibition in Southampton city centre will invite new publics to experience a specially curated voiceover installation in their civic space. Crossing between disciplines, working with cultural institutions and their communities, this innovative leadership project will transform how we encounter, mediate and explicate an important, emergent mode of contemporary art-making.
we entered galleries to find words displayed on walls or in vitrines, now we are encountering language in the artworld in a
qualitatively different way. Art's literary content is entering the gallery as sound, through the medium of the recorded
voice, as artists are drawn increasingly to present texts in the form of voiceover.
The concept of voiceover is familiar to us from documentary film, but video, installation and new media artists are pushing the format in new and unexpected directions. Voices in the Gallery aims to carry out the first investigation of the voiceover as a phenomenon that exists simultaneously as art-form, literary genre and sonic intervention. By bringing together ideas and perspectives from art, literature and sound studies, it will deliver an original, interdisciplinary theory of voiceover. This project will use the voiceover as a medium by which to explore how writing operates in art practices today:
Why is the human voice so pervasive in contemporary art? How do audiences engage with voiced writing? How does vocalization affect our experience of language-driven artworks in the gallery? How can we critically assess the literary and aesthetic features of a voiceover track? How can galleries equip listeners to 'read aurally': to interpret vocalized text that remains unseen?
In answering these questions, this project will produce a range of academic and non-academic outputs and activities. My research presentations and article will establish a new field of crossdisciplinary inquiry. My agenda-setting monograph will shape how artists, institutions and critics make, curate and analyze voiceover in future.
Partnership with creative industries is integral to this project. The research will be carried out in collaboration with engagement, exhibitions and public programming professionals at Nottingham Contemporary and John Hansard Gallery. These organizations combine international reputations for curating the most innovative contemporary art with a profound commitment to engaging diverse local audiences. By embedding ongoing research in the galleries, and engendering dialogue and exchange between arts professionals and HE, the project will mobilize insights from the research to open entry points into language-driven arts practices. Close listening workshops and study sessions will invite participants to explore new ways of experiencing and interpreting voiced writing in art. Broadside leaflets freely distributed in galleries, will guide and enrich audiences' experiences of voiceover. An off-site exhibition in Southampton city centre will invite new publics to experience a specially curated voiceover installation in their civic space. Crossing between disciplines, working with cultural institutions and their communities, this innovative leadership project will transform how we encounter, mediate and explicate an important, emergent mode of contemporary art-making.
Planned Impact
Research activities and outputs have been designed to provide timely public and creative industries impact throughout its duration. Core non-academic groups will benefit in the following ways:
1. Creative Industries Organisations
The knowledge exchange facilitated by the embedded researcher will allow the project partners to benefit from this work, increasing staff capacity in mediating language-driven arts practices. The off-site Exhibition will allow new publics to engage with the John Hansard Gallery, increasing footfall and providing opportunities for outreach to infrequent visitors. The Broadsides are devised to open new points of entry to specific artworks and will extend the reach of programming and foster fuller audience engagement with literary content in art. The Close Listening Workshops will help project partners to bridge curatorial and gallery education missions. Workshops and Study Sessions will bring new audiences into the gallery and deepen their interaction with local creative communities. The project's excavation of the voiceover's function as literary genre will strengthen visual arts organisations' links with literary practitioners and professionals. The monograph's theory of the voiceover will inform future programming and curation of language-driven art at an international level.
2. Arts Practitioners & Professionals
Artists working with voiceover in video, sound, installation and new media will benefit from the project via the monograph that will formulate the first critical analysis of the medium. Increased attention to the voiceover as form will enhance sales and exhibition prospects for these artists. Local arts professionals and practitioners will benefit from literary analytical skills acquired via participation in the Close Listening Study Sessions and Workshops. Workshops and Study Sessions will bridge local visual arts, sound art and literary communities, germinating opportunities for collaboration and strengthening community arts infrastructures. Arts professionals based at the project partner institutions will learn new skills and encounter crossdisciplinary perspectives through collaboration with the embedded researcher on Workshops, Study Sessions, Broadsides and Exhibition.
3. Local communities & wider public
Residents of Southampton and visitors to the city will benefit from engaging with the Exhibition. Its off-site location will encourage attendance from new publics. This exhibition will be designed with curatorial and engagement teams to make voiceover artworks newly accessible to a wide audience (See Letter of Support). Audience experience of this highly accessible installation will encourage their future engagement with sound, video, new media art and language-driven art. Broadsides will help audiences at programmed exhibitions to interpret the writing they encounter as sound, opening the work to a further mode of interaction, furthering understanding and enhancing confidence about engaging with contemporary art. Close Listening Workshops will provide opportunities for the public and local creative sector stakeholders to participate in collaborative reading experiments at specially curated screenings of key voiceover works in Nottingham and Southampton. Recording of Workshops will enable participants to contribute to the production of innovative new research as it develops. Study Sessions will make research accessible in non-academic contexts, inviting diverse audiences to engage with contemporary theories of art, writing and sound.
Efficient impact capture is integral to the project and will be achieved through involvement with the project partners' robust, extant evaluation frameworks (see Pathways to Impact).
1. Creative Industries Organisations
The knowledge exchange facilitated by the embedded researcher will allow the project partners to benefit from this work, increasing staff capacity in mediating language-driven arts practices. The off-site Exhibition will allow new publics to engage with the John Hansard Gallery, increasing footfall and providing opportunities for outreach to infrequent visitors. The Broadsides are devised to open new points of entry to specific artworks and will extend the reach of programming and foster fuller audience engagement with literary content in art. The Close Listening Workshops will help project partners to bridge curatorial and gallery education missions. Workshops and Study Sessions will bring new audiences into the gallery and deepen their interaction with local creative communities. The project's excavation of the voiceover's function as literary genre will strengthen visual arts organisations' links with literary practitioners and professionals. The monograph's theory of the voiceover will inform future programming and curation of language-driven art at an international level.
2. Arts Practitioners & Professionals
Artists working with voiceover in video, sound, installation and new media will benefit from the project via the monograph that will formulate the first critical analysis of the medium. Increased attention to the voiceover as form will enhance sales and exhibition prospects for these artists. Local arts professionals and practitioners will benefit from literary analytical skills acquired via participation in the Close Listening Study Sessions and Workshops. Workshops and Study Sessions will bridge local visual arts, sound art and literary communities, germinating opportunities for collaboration and strengthening community arts infrastructures. Arts professionals based at the project partner institutions will learn new skills and encounter crossdisciplinary perspectives through collaboration with the embedded researcher on Workshops, Study Sessions, Broadsides and Exhibition.
3. Local communities & wider public
Residents of Southampton and visitors to the city will benefit from engaging with the Exhibition. Its off-site location will encourage attendance from new publics. This exhibition will be designed with curatorial and engagement teams to make voiceover artworks newly accessible to a wide audience (See Letter of Support). Audience experience of this highly accessible installation will encourage their future engagement with sound, video, new media art and language-driven art. Broadsides will help audiences at programmed exhibitions to interpret the writing they encounter as sound, opening the work to a further mode of interaction, furthering understanding and enhancing confidence about engaging with contemporary art. Close Listening Workshops will provide opportunities for the public and local creative sector stakeholders to participate in collaborative reading experiments at specially curated screenings of key voiceover works in Nottingham and Southampton. Recording of Workshops will enable participants to contribute to the production of innovative new research as it develops. Study Sessions will make research accessible in non-academic contexts, inviting diverse audiences to engage with contemporary theories of art, writing and sound.
Efficient impact capture is integral to the project and will be achieved through involvement with the project partners' robust, extant evaluation frameworks (see Pathways to Impact).
Publications
Hayden S
(2020)
Liquid citizenship, liquid voice and sensorial sovereignty
in b2o: boundary 2 online journal
Hayden S
(2020)
Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa: Voiced and Unvoiced
Hayden S
(2019)
'YOU WONT BE ABLE TO REWIND BUT ONLY GO FORWARD': Laure Prouvost's AM-BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON
in Paper Visual Art
Hayden S
(2020)
When Attitudes Become Platitudes, Live in the Cloud
in Cultural Politics
Hayden S
(2020)
Nancy Holt: "Zeroing In"
S. Hayden
(2019)
One Here Now: The Brian O'Doherty/ Patrick Ireland Project
| Title | Exhibition Broadside_ Many voices, all of them loved |
| Description | Textual intervention written to accompany the exhibition, Many voices, all of them loved, at John Hansard Gallery. Includes a brief introductory text in the form of a conversation, and creative responses to each of the 7 works in the exhibition. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | The broadsides were installed on a plinth in the gallery space and made freely available to gallery visitors throughout the exhibition. As such it provided further mediation of the exhibition as a whole and the individual works and artists involved. One major artist, Laure Prouvost, asked permission to use the text about her film in future. |
| URL | http://www.voicesinthegallery.com |
| Title | Many voices, all of them loved |
| Description | This group exhibition, curated by Sarah Hayden, explores how contemporary artists are mobilising the voice as sound, as metaphor, and as political material. The exhibition asks: what constitutes a voice, and what determines how particular voices are 'heard'? The voice is often thought of as a channel linking speakers and listeners. Many voices, all of them loved considers how voices bring us together, as well as how they can be made to drive us apart: enforcing borders and entrenching division. Stretching voice to include much more than just humans talking, this exhibition also amplifies the sounds of inanimate substances, and other species, as voice. In the works brought into conversation here, voice is made present as rhythm, as visible pattern, and as carrier of meaning that extends from, and exceeds speech. The exhibition features a roster of major international artists: Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Laure Prouvost, Kader Attia, Liza Sylvestre, Willem de Rooij and Lawrence Abu Hamdan. In the sonic, audio-visual and wall-based work presented here, artists from France, the Netherlands, Lebanon Scotland and the US process imperialist legacies in Algeria, Uganda and the Arctic, and contemporary migration from Somalia into Europe. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Further funding secured from Mondriaan Fund to support presentation of work by Willem de Rooij. Funding provided by John Hansard Gallery. Included exhibition broadside by Sarah Hayden as textual intervention. |
| URL | https://www.jhg.art/event-detail/444-many-voices-all-of-them-loved/ |
| Title | Our Voices, Our Visions: Community Artwork conceived with Hannah Kemp-Welch |
| Description | Fragments of speech were gathered by social practice sound artist, Hannah Kemp-Welch, at three Voices in the Gallery events that took place in John Hansard Gallery in May 2019. After reading, thinking and talking about voice, participants created zines and were interviewed about their visions of an ideal gallery. In Our Voices, Our Visions, their voices combined. The four-part audio composition of community voices was installed in the lobby at John Hansard Gallery from August to October 2019. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Hannah Kemp-Welch's Our Voices, Our Visions was installed in the lobby at John Hansard Gallery from August to October 2019. There, the community whose voices had been composited to make the four-piece audio collage, heard their own voices re-enter the gallery. Testimony provided by Kemp-Welch attests to the impact on her practice. See https://www.sound-art-hannah.com/voices-in-the-gallery |
| URL | https://www.jhg.art/event-detail/430-our-voices-our-visions/ |
| Title | Voice in Video strand for #WIP: work in progress/ working process online exhibition |
| Description | Guest-curated a strand of this exhibition, produced by Queer Art Projects and funded by the Arts Council. The exhibition ran from 15/10/2020- 15/01/2021. The voice strand I curated featured moving image work by Naeem Mohaiemen, Sophie Seita, Larry Achiampong, Sam Keogh and P. Staff, along with a variety of process materials from each artist. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | This online exhibition reached an audience of 6,902 individual visitors, who explored the show in 13,810 sessions. Of these 54% visited from outside the UK. |
| URL | https://qap.digital/wip/?curator=sarah-hayden |
| Description | As a result of the work being funded through this award, a dynamic theory of the voicework has been developed, refined and put into practice. Project partner institutions, artists and audiences have been benefitting from and contributing to the research as it develops. Over the course of the project, 6 initial public events took place at project partner institutions in Nottingham and Southampton (May-August 2019), a major exhibition curated by the PI took place at John Hansard Gallery (Feb-April 2020), a work of community art was commissioned as a collaboration with a social practice sound artist (Aug-October 2019), and a further 9 public events (Feb-April 2020) were devised in conjunction with research partners to further extend engagement with the exhibition. The PI has been invited to speak about this research at locations including Harvard University, University of Nottingham and Whitechapel Gallery London and further presentations have been given in Austria, Toronto and Cambridge. Through the public events, exhibitions and networks developed, new research questions have been opened up, which are being explored in publications, including articles, commissioned essays, curatorial notes and the exhibition broadside; a project monograph is forthcoming. Through curation of 'Many voices, all of them loved' at John Hansard Gallery and guest-curation of the voice/video strand of Queer Art Projects' #WIP online exhibition, new curatorial skills have been acquired by the PI, and networks developed among artists working in relevant domains. Through the public events, exhibition and networks developed, further research questions have been opened up. A major new focus for research has been identified in the intersection of voice and accessibility in contemporary art-- this new topic will be explored in Voices in the Gallery: Phase 2. |
| Exploitation Route | Outcomes of this funding are already being put to use by artists, audiences and project partner institutions. The project is influencing how voice-driven art is being made, curated, mediated and experienced by audiences. Further forthcoming publications will consolidate and disseminate key research insights. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.voicesinthegallery.com |
| Description | Institutional practices at the project partner institutions, John Hansard Gallery and Nottingham Contemporary, have benefitted from my research leadership across exhibition and event curation, artist collaboration, community engagement and instigation of knowledge exchange over the engagement period. The findings to date have enhanced how arts audiences and members of diverse communities engage with contemporary art, and the place of language within it. Events have targeted specific groups (e.g. families, local arts practitioners, etc), increasing confidence and stimulating interest. Project partner institutions have implemented findings in our collaborative planning of public programmes and exhibition programmes. Academic collaborators have been enabled to explore how their research can inform public understanding of issues that are processed in contemporary art. Artist collaborators have benefitted from increased international and online exposure and new curatorial insights into the wider contexts and significance of their work with voice. External arts organisations (e.g. LUX, Holt/Smithson Foundation) have commissioned essays on voice-driven artworks in their collections for their websites; these texts frame voiceworks for new audiences. |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic |
| Description | International Presentations Grant |
| Amount | € 5,678 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Mondriaan Fund |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 04/2020 |
| Description | Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu) PER Development Funding Call 2019/20 (in collaboration with Dr Priti Mishra & Dr Eleanor K Jones) |
| Amount | £4,471 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Southampton |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 04/2020 |
| Description | Voices in the Gallery-Phase 2 |
| Amount | £202,399 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/V006096/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Description | Interruptions/Disruptions Partnership with Eleanor K Jones and Priti Mishra |
| Organisation | University of Southampton |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Instigated collaboration with Jones and Mishra. Subject-specific expertise on voice/art/literature. Co-devised Interruptions/Disruptions public programme. Co-wrote Public Engagement with Research Funding Application. Co-facilitating events. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Subject-specific expertise on post-colonial, decolonial theory, disability, transnational theory. Co-devised Interruptions/Disruptions public programme. Co-wrote Public Engagement with Research Funding Application. Co-facilitating events. |
| Impact | 'Interruptions/Disruptions' is a collaboration on a public engagement project programmed in parallel with the 'Many voices, all of them loved exhibition at John Hansard Gallery (February-April 2020). It animates themes underpinning the exhibition - language, environment, (neo)colonialism, surveillance, migration, disability - through two interlinked programmes. 'Interruptions' comprises 5 public workshops, each inviting a particular community to explore the practical significance of the exhibition's themes in their lives. 'Disruptions' takes up the creative significance of these themes, with writer-in-residence Nisha Ramayya delivering writing workshops, collaborative performance and text. Together, these two strands facilitate the active and creative engagement of Southampton communities with the intersection of global contemporary art and globally-oriented interdisciplinary research. Multi-disciplinary: art, literature, disability, post-colonial, history, languages Partners: Dr Priti Mishra, Dr Eleanor K Jones |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | John Hansard Gallery: Official Project Partner for Voices in the Gallery. |
| Organisation | University of Southampton |
| Department | John Hansard Gallery |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Intellectual input from ongoing research feeding into gallery programme throughout the project. Devising and facilitation of multiple public events. Curation of research-led exhibition. Commissioning of community artwork via social practice sound artist. Collaboration on further funding bids for exhibition. Development of collaborations with artists, institutions and academic. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expertise and intellectual input of gallery team- exhibition curators, technicians, communities curator, head of programmes (education and learning), development manager, marketing. Use of gallery facilities for exhibition and events. Provision of contacts and network of artists and institutions. Guidance in planning exhibition and events. Marketing of events and exhibition. Staffing of exhibition and events by gallery assistants. |
| Impact | 1 Collective Reading Session (May 2019) 1 Listening Workshop (May 2019) 1 Family-friendly Space to Create Session (May 2019) - in partnership with Hannah Kemp-Welch 1 Community Audio Installation (August- October 2019)- in partnership with Hannah Kemp-Welch 1 Group Exhibition (February-April 2020) 4 Disruptions Writing Workshops (February-March 2020)- in partnership with Eleanor Jones & Priti Mishra 1 Collaborative Poetry Performance (April 2020) - in partnership with Eleanor Jones & Priti Mishra 5 Interruptions Workshops (February- March 2020) - in partnership with Eleanor Jones & Priti Mishra Disciplines: Visual Art/ Moving Image, Literature |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Nottingham Contemporary |
| Organisation | Nottingham Contemporary |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Intellectual input- devising and leading 3 Voicing the Political study sessions. Funding of screenings of artworks at each of these events. Development of new collaborations with artists, institutions and academics. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expertise of staff: director, head of public programmes, marketing. Access to screening facilities and use of space. Marketing and promotion and audience development of events. |
| Impact | 3 Voicing the Political Study Sessions Disciplines: Visual Art/ Moving Image, Literature. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Attuning to Voice |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This Voicing the Political session (which I devised and ran) placed Lis Rhodes' 2004 film, Riff (18') in dialogue with Laure Prouvost's 2013 film, Swallow (12') in order to open a discussion on how we can become attuned to the operation of the human voice as we encounter it in art and beyond. A talk by Eleni Ikon tracked the figure of 'Her Voice' across political, aesthetic and philosophical domains. Sarah Hayden introduced a brief discussion of the interaction between breath, the body, phrasing and framing in Riff and Swallow before leading a workshop designed to enhance our attentiveness to the materiality of the speaking voice. Nearly half of attendees who provided feedback expressed that the event might influence a specific aspect of their practice, while a further third expressed the event had encouraged them to think about voice in art more. Nottingham Contemporary noted higher than usual participation numbers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/whats-on/voicing-the-political-attuning-to-voice/ |
| Description | Interruptions/Disruptions Public Programme in conjunction with Dr Eleanor K Jones, Dr Priti Mishra and John Hansard Gallery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A crossdisciplinary public engagement collaboration with colleagues Eleanor K. Jones and Priti Mishra. This series of public events was designed to unlock the political and social themes of the project exhibition, Many voices, all of them loved. These comprised a voicemapping workshop, acoustic surveillance listening session, workshops on D/deaf inclusivity, an exhibition writer-in-residence scheme, and a series of all-ages creative writing workshops. When the Covid-19 crisis compelled gallery closures, these events were moved online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.voicesinthegallery.com/interruptions-disruptions |
| Description | Invited to conduct In Conversation event: Ailbhe Ni Bhriain: Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre at Whitechapel Gallery, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited interlocutor, for 'Ailbhe Ni Bhriain: Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre', at Whitechapel Gallery, as part of 2020 Artists Film International programme. Impact pending. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/events/ailbhe-ni-bhriain-inscriptions-of-an-immense-theatre/ |
| Description | Power/Pleasure/Play (& Prouvost): Listening Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This Close Listening Workshop invited artists, arts professionals and the public to explore how language makes itself heard in art today. A specially curated screening of three works by Laure Prouvost gave participants an opportunity to engage intensely with her voice-driven video practice. Each work was framed by a presentation by Sarah Hayden that primed participants to listen afresh to breath, rhythm, gaps, slips and marks of embodiment in vocal performance. Through listening experiments and a mediated discussion, we thought together about the voice as it relates to power, pleasure and play. A group of c.20, comprising many artists, arts professionals, writers, musicians and members of the general public were engaged in a lively, mediated encounter with the significance of voice in the work of the artist, Laure Prouvost. Almost none of the group had encountered her work previously, but many were aware of her reputation. Three of (Turner Prize-winning) artist Laure Prouvost's videos were screened during the workshop: DIT LEARN (2017), Swallow (2013), and The Artist (2010). As such the event enabled the development of a keen audience for the inclusion of her work in the Many voices, all of them loved exhibition at John Hansard Gallery in 2020. It also helped me to plan how to present and mediate this complex and demanding work for the public, by testing it with a live group. 75% of attendees who provided feedback said the event was useful to them in thinking about how they might include voice in their practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.voicesinthegallery.com/new-blog/2015/11/24/the-return-of-the-rainbow |
| Description | The polyvocal is political |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The first session in the Voicing the Political series (which I devised and ran) presented a screening of Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa's Promised Lands (2015, 20') alongside Lis Rhodes' Pictures on Pink Paper (1982, 35'). A short talk by Sarah Hayden probed how these two formally startling films use polyvocality, word as material and semantic ambiguity to do political work. The mediated discussion that followed was structured around a one-page document featuring short statements from some of the most vivid and provocative theorists of voice today: Adriana Cavarero, Nina Sun Eidsheim, Brandon LaBelle and Norie Neumark. This document did not need to be read in advance (although it could be requested on booking). Instead, we read together: interpreting and evaluating these short propositions, while echoes of Wolukau-Wanambwa and Rhodes still resounded in the space. Voicing the Political invited general public, artists, arts professionals and writers to explore the politics of voice and voicing. Thinking beyond the equation of political agency with 'having a voice', these public events addressed vocality as a phenomenon at the confluence of embodiment and technicity, the individual and the collective, interior and exterior, sound and sense. The format for each session comprised a mix of screenings, workshops, talks, collective reading activities, and live listening experiments. In this series, we worked together to interrogate the politics of how voice is used, represented, imagined and heard. Introduced the project and concept to the Nottingham arts community. Lively conversation, raised lots of interest in the series and future events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/whats-on/voicing-the-political-the-polyvocal-is-political/ |
| Description | The subject of the sentence: Study Session |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The third event in the Voicing the Political series (which I devised and ran) invited participants to navigate between the voiced writing we hear onscreen and voiceable printed text. We enlisted the writings of the poet, artist and radical activist Anna Mendelssohn to propose new entry points into the politically radical poetics of Lis Rhodes. Vicky Sparrow framed the session with a talk on 'Radical Aesthetics, Artistic Agitation and Political Provocation'. A short talk by Sarah Hayden-focusing on formal disruption, vocal interruption and silencing-prefaced a screening of Lis Rhodes' A Cold Draft (1988, 28'). Participants were then led to apply insights generated by 'aurally reading' Rhodes in a collaborative analysis of an experimental poem by Mendelssohn. Nottingham Contemporary confirmed very high participation rate and audience interest. Participants reported that the series had led them to change their artistic practice. The success of the series has influenced future programming by the public programmes team at the gallery. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/whats-on/voicing-the-political-the-subject-of-the-sentence/ |
| Description | Voice & How to Hear It |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This Collective Reading Session opens a conversation with all who are interested in thinking together about voice, vocality and listening. Sarah first introduced some of the most exciting ideas resonating in voice studies today. The group then considered a selection of provocative theoretical prompts (this primer will be made available in advance but no preparatory reading is required). Our discussion gave participants a chance to tune in to the material, aesthetic, social and political dimensions of voice and voicing. Free public event staged as part of Community Takeover at John Hansard Gallery. Attracted arts practitioners and professionals as well as members of the general public, writers, musicians and researchers in other disciplines. Lively discussion. Established basis for public face of the project. Developed audience/participants for future events. 50% of those providing feedback expressed an idea of how the event might influence part of their practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Voicing Your Vision: Family-friendly Space to Create Session |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this Space to Create family-friendly workshop, participants joined social practice sound artist Hannah Kemp-Welch and Sarah Hayden to imagine and record-in audio and as a zine-their own wild and wonderful vision of your ideal gallery. High participation from families and children (4-11). Many stayed for a number of hours, making zines, recording each others' voices and discussing the screening. Zines can be viewed and excerpts of recordings can be heard here: https://www.sound-art-hannah.com/voices-in-the-gallery Subsequently, Kemp-Welch produced an audio collage from the recordings madd that day which I commissioned for installation in the lobby of John Hansard Gallery (August-October 2019). See Voicing Your Vision. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.jhg.art/event-detail/405-space-to-create-voicing-your-vision/ |
| Description | www.voicesinthegallery.com |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public-facing website dedicated to the project and its events. Return to this with analytics from site. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | http://www.voicesinthegallery.com |