Resonance and the Museum with Clair Le Couteur
10th Mar 2019
On Monday 18 March, 2-7.30pm join artist Clair Le Couteur for Resonance and the Museum. A seminar will take place at Open School East, then the audience will move on to Margate Museum for a performance.
‘The problem with things is that they are dumb. They are not eloquent, as some thinkers in art museums claim. They are dumb. And if by some ventriloquism they seem to speak, they lie.’ Crew & Sims, ’Locating Authenticity’ (1991:159)
What happens if we consider museum collections in terms of resonance, harmonics and voice? All voices – human, animal, machine – are generated by assemblages, whether of flesh and sinew or more unusual components. All spaces resonate with particular harmonics. This event will combine elements from museum studies, assemblage theory and overtone singing to discuss objects and collections. While, as Crew & Sims argue, things may not speak, we will investigate the possibility that things may sing.
Clair Le Couteur is a non-binary trans research artist and singer, currently completing their practice-based PhD – ‘The Fictive Museum’ – at the Royal College of Art, London. Recent projects include: Roots Between the Tides (2016), an a network installation of 144 images; and Reading Trans (2017-18), a series of workshops on trans theory for postgraduate art courses including Goldsmiths and Open School East.
Image: Clair Le Couteur, courtesy Open School East.