Lecture 1 of the M.Arch Team’s Seminar Series: Oppositions X Intersections in Architecture
Robert Curgenven is an Ireland-based, Australian-born artist producing albums, performances, and installations. His work emphasises physicality, our embodied response to sound and its correspondence to location, air, weather, and architecture. His recorded output included Tailte Cré-Umha (Bronze Lands) and SIRENE for his Recorded Fields Editions, described by the Guardian (AU) as ‘evocative’ and ‘expansive [pipe] organ work’, ‘epic…remarkable music’ by Wire Magazine (UK), ‘astounding’ by FACT mag (USA) and given ‘four stars’ by Mojo (UK); Oltre and Built Through for LINE imprint, both ‘highly-recommended’ by Boomkat (UK) and ‘true sound art’ by the Washington Post (USA); and Climata, recorded in 15 James Turrell’s Skyscapes across 9 countries, called’ sense shifting’ by Fluid Audio (UK) and ‘an extraordinary piece’ by RTÉ (Irish National Radio).
The (unusual) human voice and queer vibratory space: In this presentation, artistic researcher in and of the voice Yvon Bonenfant, PhD, will draw from his work to explore with you how the voice becomes (unusual) tactile matter in his artwork. From experiments in fashion studies with the artist Jennifer Anyan and their emerging concept of the ‘vibratory layer’ and inspired by Sarah Ahmed’s (2006) notions of queered spatial relations, he takes you on a journey where the performer’s or the participant’s voice conjure material engagement thanks to human and digital vibration technologies.
Yvon Bonenfant is Head of Department of Theatre, at UCC and Director of the Humanities Institute, one of the UCC Futures areas. Since 2010 his works have largely involved participation, ranging from the UK tour of Uluzuzulalia, The Voice Trunk (2012-17) and Voice Bubbles for iPad (2012-14) to primary school-aged children, to Curious Replicas (2016) for passers-by in public space, through to Resonant Tails (2016-2019) for children with profound and multiple learning disAbilities ((PMLD) through to his recent collaboration with Alex Pentek, Jeff Weeter, and team, Loop Lovee (2023) for adults with mild to moderate learning disAbilities. He theorises as well.
