Talks, screenings and discussions will explore how soundscapes – music, voices, speech, noise and silence – evoke difficult histories, in particular the Holocaust. By looking at sound editing in film, music composition, installation art and museum exhibitions we will address questions around representation, remembering, authenticity and affect.
Programme
2.00 Welcome and introduction by the organisers
2.15 Music and composition
Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London
Illustrated talk on Steve Reich’s composition Different Trains (1988)
Chair: Janet McCabe, Birkbeck, University of London
3.15 Installation art and soundscapes
Esther Shalev-Gerz, artist
Illustrated talk on Holocaust, testimony, the human voice and its silences
Chair: Diana Popescu, Pears Institute, Birkbeck, University of London
4.00 – 4.30 Coffee Break
4.30 Sound in museum exhibitions
Ramon De Marco, sound designer, Idee und Klang Audio-Design
Illustrated talk on exhibition sound design in the new Holocaust Galleries, Imperial War Museum
Chair: Silke Arnold-de Simine, Birkbeck, University of London
5.15 Sound editing
Val Kuklowsky, Hollywood sound designer/editor
Illustrated talk on the use of sound in Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015)
Chair: Kim Akass/Adele Fletcher, University of Hertfordshire
6.00 Screening of Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015)
Organisers:
Kim Akass, University of Hertfordshire
Silke Arnold-de Simine, Birkbeck, University of London
Janet McCabe, Birkbeck, University of London
Diana Popecsu, Pears Institute, Birkbeck, University of London