New review: Her Noise at Tate Modern

The Her Noise theme began as a 2001 curatorial project focused on gender imbalance in sonic art. This led the creators to map women in the field, along with those in electronic music and punk, for a 2005 exhibition. A living DIY archive at LCC followed and on 5 May 2012, Tate Modern hosted the Her Noise Symposium: a day of discussion and art focused on topics such as such as women’s voices and varied uses of technology.

Artist Joanne Matthews has reviewed the symposium for us. Here’s a preview of what she has to say about it:

The Her Noise Symposium I attend on 5 May forms part of the Her Noise: Feminisms and the Sonic collaboration between Electra, CRiSAP and Tate Modern: a series of events investigating feminist discourses in sound and music (including performances by Meredith Monk and Pauline Oliveros that I sadly missed).

The Symposium is a day of talks and discussions among female artists, musicians, curators, writers and academics. It takes place in the Starr Auditorium at Tate Modern, which is not a particularly inspiring venue. As I’m not usually a fan of conference-style learning, I’m a little wary of spending an entire day in the uncompromising red room, with a slight hangover.

As an artist, I’m attending the symposium with the hope of farming for some inspiration to connect feminism to my artistic practice. I sometimes find talking about feminism rather stifling and need to explore new languages to liberate me from this. By exploring how feminist discourses are framed within a current cultural context, we can see tangible examples being explored and shaped.

Click here to read the review in full and comment

Picture shows several figures walking across the Millennium Bridge in London, approaching Tate Modern. Released into the public domain by its author, Adrian Pingstone.