Join us for a special lecture by artist, musician and writer, Seth Kim-Cohen, presented with Discipline and Liquid Architecture as part of an ongoing public lecture series Histories and Theories of Sound.
In the late-1960s and early-70s, information was shaped, calibrated, modulated – one might even say created – by new technologies of mechanical reproduction. In both state surveillance and in conceptual art, tape recorders and photocopiers transformed the value and meaning of information.
In this lecture, Kim-Cohen will consider recordings that were made never to be listened to, such as The Nixon White House Tapes, produced as bargaining chips for blackmail and coercion, not meant to be listened to until needed; and in contrast, Christine Kozlov’s tapes, part of the first wave of conceptual art, are recordings trapped in acoustic amber, similarly made never to be listened to. Kozlov’s tapes exist as the accounting of a bound and gagged hostage (the recorder), held for the eventual attention of an unidentified eavesdropping ear.
Seth Kim-Cohen is an artist, musician, and writer who makes as little distinction between these categories as he can get away with. He is also Associate Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim-Cohen is author of Against Ambience (2013), In The Blink of an Ear: Toward A Non-Cochlear Sonic Art (2009), and One Reason To Live: Conversations About Music (2006). His gallery-based practice – which Artforum describes as “collegial and awkward, a real-life mistake framed by a semi-fictitious context” – has been presented on all but three continents. His bands Nil/Resplendent, The Fire Show, and Number One Cup have released eight full-length albums since 1995.
Seth Kim-Cohen is presented in Australia by Liquid Architecture with the support of Melbourne Law School and the Digital Citizens Research Network. This event is supported by City of Melbourne.
Discipline is a publisher and contemporary art journal edited by Helen Hughes and David Homewood. Alongside artist pages and interviews, it publishes research essays about contemporary Australian art, and histories and theories of contemporary art as a global industry or phenomenon.
Liquid Architecture is an Australian organisation for artists working with sound. Liquid Architecture investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening. Their program stages encounters and creates spaces for sonic experience, and critical reflection on sonority and systems of sonic affect. To do this, Liquid Architecture host experiences at the intersection of contemporary art and experimental music, supporting artists to produce performances and concerts, exhibitions, talks, reading groups, workshops and recordings in art spaces, music venues and other sites.
