Yes/No: Sound/Image Conference | Concourse Gallery

Yes No Conference

Yes/No: Sound/Image Conference

Organizers: Christof Migone and Kelly Wood 
Invited speakers: Olivia Boudreau, Chris Kennedy, Peter Lebel, Annie McDonell, Brian Price, 
Western PhD candidates: Rehab Nazzal, Stephen Mueller, Ulisses Unda. 
Presented by the Department of Visual Arts in partnership with McIntosh Gallery

Friday, November 21> 9:30AM – 6:30PM

A conference investigating current debates on the confluence between sound and image in the context of contemporary practices and discourses in both visual art and media art. The conference aims to discuss the binaries made explicit by the title Yes/No: Sound/Image less in their dichotomous mode than as markers of generative dialogical possibilities. Sarat Maharaj asserts that "sound is a volumizer, it stacks up spatial blocks around the image" and "sound is a corrective blast against retinal surfeit, it's a deretinalizing force." Robert Bresson stated that sound and image "must work each in turn through a sort of relay" and that the cinematographer must use the "impatiences" that emerge out of this taking of turns. Both Maharaj and Bresson raise issues seemingly pertaining to formal play, but they also extend them to the paradigms, paradoxes, politics and polemics that underpin sound/image production. In "Neither God nor Master: Robert Bresson and Radical Politics", Brian Price outlines how the relational nature of the image and the role of voice in the metaphysics of presence informs (and deforms) the stakes of sovereignty and freedom. In other words, and put succintly, an image, a sound can be imbued with a force, a power, an ability to produce lasting affect and effect substantive change. These are the types of territories we will investigate in this conference featuring presentations by eight artists, scholars and theorists.

Artlab Gallery
Department of Visual Arts

John Labatt Visual Arts Centre
Perth Drive, London, Ontario, Canada
For more information please contact:
Susan Edelstein, Gallery Director sedelst@uwo.ca