Uncurating Sound: Knowledge with Voice and Hands

Uncurating Sound explores the perfidy of norms and the curatorial as a colonial knowledge project, reconsidering art as political and the body as a source of knowledge beyond the ordinary. It encourages an ethical engagement with the work/world through direct knowing from voice, hands, feet, and ears.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 136 pages
Publication date: 23 February 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Uncurating Sound is a thought-provoking exploration that delves into the intricate interplay between art, politics, knowledge, and normativity, spanning across five chapters. It forefronts the deceitfulness of norms and engages in curation as a colonial knowledge project, characterized by an economy of exploitation that traces a direct line from the Enlightenment's pursuit of objectivity to the violence of contemporary art. By appropriating the concept of care, the book challenges the traditional notion of curation by proposing purposeful inefficiency as a form of resistance. It encourages curators to venture sideways and explore alternative paths, ultimately leading to the uncuration of knowledge from the constraints of reference and canonical frames. Moreover, Uncurating Sound reconsiders art as a political force, not solely in its message or aim, but through the way it confronts the institutional framework.

In examining Kara Walker's work, the book invites readers to perform the curatorial through indivisible connections and processes. It further speculates on how the body can lead us to knowledge beyond the ordinary by referencing the writings of Kathy Acker and Adrian Piper. By engaging with the works of Kate Carr and Ellen Fullman, the book re-examines Modernism's colonial ideology and materializes the vibrational presence of a plural sense. Through listening to Marguerite Humeau and Manon de Boer, the book avoids theoretical abstractions but agitates a direct knowing from voice, hands, feet, and ears that disrupts hegemonic knowledge strands in favor of local, tacit, feminist, and contingent knowledges that demand ethical engagement with the work/world, much like the photographs of Zanele Muholi.

Overall, Uncurating Sound offers a profound and provocative exploration of the complex relationships between art, politics, knowledge, and normativity, challenging readers to think critically about the roles and responsibilities of curators in shaping our understanding of the world.

Dimension: 197 x 127 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501345401