Nexus Art: SOUND
Cancelled
Location
Sallis Benney Theatre, Performance Studio (East Wing), the GP Quad
Grand Parade, School of Art & Media, University of Brighton
Date & time
15 June 2023, all day
Synopsis
Nexus Art: SOUND – a one-day event of talks, artistic presentations, performances and conversations to explore the manifold relationships into which sound enters within the current hybrid constellation of contemporary arts.
Topic: A ubiquitous shift towards hybridity and integration in the arts is moving in lock-step with a changing self-understanding in contemporary art practices. This has far-reaching consequences for every aspect of the arts – their location, institutions, perception, presentation, material, dissemination, audiences, cultural significance and – not least – the way they are taught. New constellations of art practices are emerging that are no longer defined through genre, but by their cross-fertilisation with other arts and outer-art practices, producing a new generation of mutations and variations, many of which now involve sound.
Collaboration
The event was conceived and organised by members of Sound Art Brighton in collaboration with School of Art and Media, Creative Sound & Music Research Group, Digital Music & Sound Arts, Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts and The Rose Hill.
Programme
The programme included conference talks, artistic presentations and sound performances, thematic conversations and an evening concert.
Participants
Cathy van Eck, University of the Arts, Bern, Switzerland CH
Chelsea Leventhal, University of the Art Berlin, Germany
Claudia Kappenberg, University of Brighton
Tansy Spinks, School of Arts, Middlesex University
Kersten Glandien, University of Brighton / Sound Art Brighton
Olivia Louvel, University of Brighton / Sound Art Brighton
Joshua Le Gallienne, freelance artist / Sound Art Brighton
Students & alumni of Digital Music & Sound Arts programme
Outcome
In April 2023 – the Nexus team was informed that the money for all university research projects – which had been confirmed just 3 months before – had been retrospectively withdrawn. Thanks to a combination of bad planning, mismanagement and embezzlement, the university had racked up enormous debts and was in crisis.
At this stage the curation and organisation of the nexus event was near completion. The programme was fixed, logistics and technological issues resolved and the participants had submitted their abstracts, booked their travel and were working on their talks, performances and exhibits. It all had to be cancelled.
Cutting research funds was just the first step. In order to plug the massive (millions-of-pounds) hole in their budget, they set about scrapping one in four academic posts, mainly in the arts, humanities and social sciences.