Voices in (and around) the Museum

4-25 May 2011

A month-long series of discursive events

Co-organised by Sarah Byrne and Antony Hudek
for the UCL Centre for Museums, Heritage and Material Culture Studies

University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 0AH

These events are open to all and attendance is free

From being perceived as a collective resting place for mute objects and a silent, ocular-centric space to showcase them, the museum is increasingly called upon to account for the voices in its midst. Objects are now widely understood to tell stories, speaking in different ways to different constituencies. In turn, the voices of visitors, source communities, curators, collectors and makers – whether in the form of reminiscence, testimony, storytelling, myth or song – play an increasingly prominent role in determining the museum’s approach to knowledge production and dissemination.

This series of oral interventions – by architects, artists, curators, historians, musicians, theorists, and writers – aims to understand how the voices emanating from objects and subjects in the museum impact the institution’s traditional remit of researching, collecting and displaying objects. How do these voices condition the visitor’s affective and sensory experience? How do the narratives told by the museum through objects change over time? Which voices have been suppressed, and why? What can museums do to preserve the immaterial traces of the voice? And what new technologies and outreach strategies will be required to listen to and broadcast voices both in and outside of the museum?

Download a poster for these events

Wednesday 4 May, 6-8.30pm: Voicing the Museum Artefact

Sarah Byrne (UCL Mellon Programme)
Debbie Challis (UCL Petrie Museum)
Emma Poulter (British Museum)
David Toop (London College of Communication)

Haldane Room, UCL main campus (campus map)

Full details

Wednesday 11 May, 6-8.30pm : Exhibiting the Voice: inside the museum

Steve Cross (UCL Public Engagement Unit)
Colin Fournier (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture)
Marysia Lewandowska (Konstfack,Stockholm)
Sarah Lowry (Foundling Museum, London)

UCL Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, WC1, Room 209 (campus map)

Full details

Wednesday 18 May, 6-8.30pm : Exhibiting the Voice: outside the museum

Toby Butler (University of East London)
Paul Elliman (Yale School of Art)
Seph Rodney (The London Consortium)
Imogen Stidworthy (Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht)

UCL Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, WC1, Room 209 (campus map)

Full details

Wednesday 25 May, 6-8.30pm: Preserving the Voice

Susan Hawkins (Kingston University London)
Jack Maynard and Allison Foster' (Tate)
Linda Sandino (V&A and University of the Arts London)
Hilary Young (Museum of London)

UCL Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, WC1, Room 209 (campus map)

Full details

This page last modified 26 September, 2012 by [UCL Mellon Admin]