Speaking With: Re-enactment and voicing the subjective through research and practice 

12th Jun 2019 10:00am-4:00pm 

Venue: Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Royal College of Art, 1 Hester Road, Battersea, London SW11 4AN

Please Register for Tickets Here  

We are delighted to announce two Keynote Speakers Professor Carol Mavor (University of Copenhagen) and Nadia Hebson (Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm). Chaired by Professor Rebecca Fortnum (RCA), PhD researchers will present their work alongside the keynote presenters to consider: strands of re-enactment as a research method; the subjectivity of the researcher/artist/archive; and what it means to work in the context of historical research.

Speaking of historical subjects through re-enactment strategies as identified by Lutticken(1) allows the subjectivity of the researcher and the subject of enquiry to be reviewed through a new kind of lens. It allows for framing of subjects through multiple voices outside of institutional narratives and following from Catherine Grant’s work on feminist fandom(2), allows for what we might term 'fandom' to be re-examined as a legitimate form of academic framing and thinking. In art practice, literature and academia there is a re-emergence of thinkers who utilise what we will call 'speaking with', as different to speaking ‘to’ or ‘for’ as a method for researchers and artists working with a historical subject. This kind of re-enactment follows from Irigaray’s discourse on feminist language and speaking, with a questioning of the voice/s of the archive and how they/we speak. This question of the ethics of speaking is creating revitalised discourse around pertinent questions such as -

• What is the place of the subjective in historical research?
• What theoretical frameworks does re-enactment offer and/or restrict?
• How can ’fandom’ transcend the personal in art practice and research?
• What does the archive offer beyond the subject of its record?
• What are the ethics of speaking of and for others?

(1) Lütticken, S. (2005). An Arena in Which to Reenact. In Life, Once More: Forms of Reenactment in Contemporary Art (pp. 17-60). Rotterdam: Witte de With.

(2) Grant, C. ‘Fans of Feminism: Re-writing Histories of Second-wave Feminism in Contemporary Art’, Oxford Art Journal, Volume 34, Issue 2, 1 June 2011, Pages 265–286

 

This event is funded by technē - the AHRC Consortium. It is free and open to all but registration is required.

Please Register for Tickets Here

Please note: Refreshments will be available, but lunch is not provided. A number of lunch options are within walking distance of the venue.

For more details about the event please email marita.fraser@network.rca.ac.uk