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Archived Events
Architecture, Theory, Politics
An event with Eyal Weizman
Eyal Weizman presented his ideas in relation to his forthcoming publication Hollow Land. The presentation was followed by an open discussion chaired by Andrew Chesher.
The Other Within Me: The Practice of Deconstruction
An event with Peter Zeillinger
Peter Zeillinger, a philosopher and theologian based at the University of Vienna, Austria, joined Thinking Through Practice to lead a workshop on deconstruction. During the course of this event, Zeillinger ‘thought through’ the practice of Derridian deconstruction as affirmative gesture. Breaks, interruptions, traces, doubts, performativity – all of these, inherent in such a practice, were brought to bear on question of ‘practical’ life.
The Ister
A screening and conversation with David Barrison, introduced and chaired by Isobel Bowditch
This was the first Thinking Through Practice event, held before we formally established the project. As such, this was the ‘pilot’ event for us.
The Ister intricately combines an overtly philosophical content with a deeply aesthetic sensibility, reflecting the backgrounds and interests of its two makers, David Barrison and Daniel Ross. When we heard that David Barrison was due to be in London, we grasped the opportunity to invite him to speak with us about this extraordinary film.
N for Negri: a conversation with Toni Negri
A screening and conversation with Carles Guerra, introduced and chaired by Neil Cummings
Neil Cummings invited his friend and colleague Carles Guerra to show and discuss his rarely seen film, N For Negri in the context of this event. The screening was followed by Q&A session with Neil followed by an open discussion with the audience. This day brought together two research projects with different but related emphasis on kinds of ‘practice’ – Thinking Through (Practice) and Critical (Practice) and the discussion was enriched by the considerable presence of Critical Practitioners at the event.
Between Categories
Music, Sound and the Moving Image
A symposium with screenings, conversations, talks and performances
While contemporary mainstream cinema, with increasing homogeneity, choreographs the relation between sound and image to add excitement, emotional weight or drama to the proceedings, this symposium looks at alternative ways of viewing sound: as reflective, generative, and as both source and subject matter of the image.
Breaking Voices
a day of performances and presentations
Symposium organisers: Isobel Bowditch and Lawrence Sullivan
On this page you will find the documentation of the days events (see note on next page about Q&A).
We decided to try out a few simple ways of altering the format in order to make proceedings more relaxed. For instance we asked members of the audience as they came in whether they would like to introduce presentations. Those who agreed were given the name of the person and title of their presentation but otherwise could say whatever they wanted. This, in our view worked rather well and in its own way helped to loosen tongues.
The introductory text (read by Lawrence) was short and quiet:
A very warm welcome to everyone. Approximately a year or so ago, Isobel and I (with a number of other people) were involved in a discussion group around the idea of ‘the ethics of speech’. We drew on various sources- films, texts and artworks, but the main point of departure was Mladen Dolar’s “A Voice and Nothing More.” Dolar, following the work done separately by both Derrida and Lacan, investigates how the voice as object can be what he calls a ‘lever of thought’. It seems that Dolar is amongst those for whom ‘the voice’ is once more philosophically interesting. We will hear from some of those today.
Indeed, in order to contemplate the philosophical significance of voice, it has to be said that the voice of philosophy itself starts to change. Thinking starts to sing.
Jean Luc-Nancy for example says:
“[the sound] mmmmmmmm resounds previous to the voice, inside the throat, scarcely grazing the lips from the back of the mouth, without any movement of the tongue, jsut a column of air pushed from teh chest in the sonorous cavity, the cave of the mouth that does not speak. Not a voice, or writing, or a word, or a cry, but transcendental murmuring, the condition of all words and all silence, a primal or archiglottal sound in which I give my death rattle and wail, death agony and birth, I hum and growl, song, jouissance and souffrance, motionless work, mummified word…[and so on]”
For those more concerned with performance or the vocal arts this has never been forgotten. Some of them will remind us again today.
On the next page you will find the original text inviting people to particpate, information about presenters and the programme.