INTERNATIONAL // SOUND ART
AUSTRALIA // FORUM
Melbourne Festival and Australian Centre
for the Moving Image (ACMI) present
The University of Melbourne in association with Melbourne Festival presents
AURAL CONTRACT
THE VOICE BEFORE
THE LAW
Curator LIQUID ARCHITECTURE
Artist LAWRENCE ABU HAMDAN
In 2010 he began development
on Aural Contract, an umbrella for
works investigating the role of
the voice in law and the changing
nature of testimony in the face of
new regimes of border control,
algorithmic technology, medical
science and surveillance.
Aural Contract works take
varied forms—audio, essays,
installations, performance—but
all draw from an evolving sound
archive comprising political and
court recordings, police evidence,
films, literature and more.
At Melbourne Festival, Hamdan
will present a series of audio
documentaries from the Aural
Contract as a ‘live listening event’
in the immersive environment of
the dark cinema. These will be
followed by discussion with the
artist moderated by sound art
organisation Liquid Architecture—
an Australian organisation for
events, exhibitions, performances
and situations of the world’s
leading artists working with sound.
ACMI, Federation Square
SUN 18 OCTOBER at 4PM
3 hrs
FREE
Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s stay in Melbourne
is supported by MADA | Monash University
Art Design & Architecture
6
PHOTO Manuel Harlan
Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s (b. 1985,
Amman, Jordan) works examine the
contemporary politics of listening—
its relationship to power, borders,
human rights, testimony and truth.
LANGUAGE, PERFORMANCE
AND POWER
REFLECTING ON 1984 IN 2015
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty–Four
has been described as the ‘definitive
book’ of the twentieth century.
Indeed, so powerful were the themes
of his novel that terms and concepts
such as Big Brother, Doublespeak
and Thoughtcrime have entered the
lexicon, and realised his warning
about the often insidious relationship
between language and power.
In Nineteen Eighty–Four the
totalitarian government plans
to abolish the English language
altogether in favour of their official
language Newspeak, designed to
control the populace and eradicate
individual thought.
Anatomising in a world where there
is no longer a word for ‘science’
and the concept of Freedom has
been eroded, Orwell explores the
links between language, politics
and psychology, the rewriting of
history, and the manufacturing of
the past.
Melbourne Festival’s free program of activities
proudly brought to you by the City of Melbourne.
This event brings together
speakers from the University of
Melbourne to discuss Headlong’s
production of 1984, the history of
the impact of Orwell’s novel and
its relevance nearly 70 years after
it was first published in 1949.
What are the lessons of Nineteen
Eighty–Four for the era of rendition,
electric surveillance and the media
landscape of today? What if a
contemporary Orwell was to write
2051?
CLEMENGER AUDITORIUM, NGV
WED 21 OCTOBER at 6PM
1hr 15 mins, no interval
FREE
For announcements about
other panellists please visit
www.festival.mebourne