Master of Voice presents the graduation program Mountain Song, a time-based exhibition, and the public symposium The Voice of the Artist
Mountain Song
Mountain Song is a time-based exhibition by the eleven graduates of the MA programme Master of Voice, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam. Over the course of three days, Mountain Song unfolds with installed works and a program of live performances, all taking place at Dokzaal in Amsterdam. This presentation of the Master of Voice graduates—who have backgrounds in performance, theatre, art, design, activism, classical singing, choreography and visual anthropology—is an accumulative and diverse exploration of the voice as both a social, emotional and technological currency and a unique artistic discipline.
Participants: Angelo Custódio, Bin Koh, Cécile Tafanelli, Danae Io, Duncan Robertson, Eva Šusová, Maria Montesi, Mavi Veloso, Miyuki Inoue, Natasha Papadopoulou, Thom Driver
The Master of Voice MA program examines the voice as a unique discipline, with a focus on the human voice, as a means to or an end in itself, within artistic practice. The voice is explored in its various social, cultural, and technological appearances—from vocal speech to the “speech act” to singing. The course puts the voice and its role in our post-industrial society central, with a special orientation toward gender and technology.
The Master of Voice reflects an increasing interest among a new generation of artists and writers, often female, who employ the voice—subjectively and objectively—in their work. Furthermore, the centrality of “orality” today is clearly informed by processes of digitization and new technologies. Taking the (human) voice into consideration could lead to new paradigms of the relation between technology and what is human. The Master of Voice provides an environment for this investigation.
The Voice of the Artist
A public symposium organized by Master of Voice
Speakers: MPA, Jenna Sutela, Hannah Catherine Jones (aka Foxy Moron), PRICE (Mathias Ringgenberg), Padraig Robinson and Last Yearz Interesting Negro / Jamila Johnson-Small
The symposium The Voice of the Artist explores the voice of the artist in today’s society. Here, “voice” takes on a philosophical position as well as political agency. In a classical sense, in affinity with the philosopher, the figure of the artist is the one entitled to fearlessly speak the truth. Once, it was believed that artists were the only producers of discourse, a position that today seems to have been taken over by art institutions. Furthermore, in the wider social sphere cultural production is not exclusively the field of artists as even non-art agents, as a part of an increasing conceptual turn in capitalism, claim “creativity.” In this complex reality, the symposium puts the figure of the artist central, to scrutinize their assumed unique voice as well as to investigate their social position and responsibility.
The symposium is part of the Master of Voice graduation program and marks a new phase in the research on the voice. More chapters will be realized in the fall of 2018.
More information and reservations: dorothe [at] sandberg.nl
Master of Voice is a temporary MA program (2016–18) at the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam. The symposium The Voice of the Artist is generously supported by the Sandberg Institute.
