“Ineffable Sound:” On Arthur Russell, Crip Performance and Queer Relation

A man in an orange sweater and blue scarf sits at a large mixing console in a recording studio, adjusting controls while holding a sheet of paper, surrounded by audio equipment and a keyboard in the background.
Ruari Paterson-Achenbach
Date 05/11/2024 at 17.30 - 05/11/2024 at 19.00 Where Gatsby Room (Chancellor's Centre) & Zoom

A talk exploring experimental/pop/disco musician Arthur Russell (1951-1992), seeking to understand his creative philosophy, particularly during the last few years of his life. 

A man in an orange sweater and blue scarf sits at a large mixing console in a recording studio, adjusting controls while holding a sheet of paper, surrounded by audio equipment and a keyboard in the background.

Overview

Arthur Russell (1951-1992) is a musician about whom few feel ambivalent. For many he is unknown, continuing to exist in the obscurity and avoidance of success which characterised his short but remarkably full time on this earth. Despite publicly releasing very little during his lifetime, he nonetheless left behind an extensive recorded archive of folk and country tunes, experimental ensemble pieces, disco mixes, drum machine loops and heavily effect-laden cello songs. A key but underappreciated part of New York’s downtown experimental music and disco scenes, his music always operated at this moment of tension between idiosyncrasy and popularity. What runs through his work is a deep commitment to exploring the relationships we forge with each other, in our most intimate friendships, in the moments of shared feeling when playing with each other, when kissing and laughing out on the dancefloor. Building on archival research undertaken at the New York Public Library, this talk will explore what characterises his unique approach to creativity, how it was shaped by those around him, and in particular, his illness and subsequent death from AIDS related complications in 1992. By reading his late performances through queer and crip theories of temporality, this talk seeks to reevaluate this creative period and highlight his unique contribution to music history. 

 

Speaker

Ruari Paterson-Achenbach is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher, currently a PhD candidate in Music at the University of Cambridge funded by the AHRC. Their work thinks about sound and performance as vehicles for memory, resistance and temporal antagonism. Through an intimate, affective engagement with Outsider Music, their PhD project hopes to uncover an alternative archive of sound, unveiling radical potential for creativity within and through non-normative social life. More broadly, their research interests include queer temporality, critical listening, creative anarchism, black feminist thought and decoloniality. They have forthcoming publications in Capacious and Openworks. Ruari was also a ‘New Creative’ and has produced works with and for the ICA, BBC and NTS Radio. They have performed in spaces such as Tate Modern, the London Contemporary Music Festival, Cafe OTO and the Heong Gallery. They love to find joy and beauty in the everyday.

 

Details

This is a hybrid event, which will take place in-person in the Gatsby Room (Chancellor's Centre) and also on Zoom.

If you would like to attend online, please register for the Zoom link.

Refreshments will be available for the in-person audience.

 

Access

This event will take place in the Gatsby Room on the first floor of the Chancellor's Centre. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located each floor of the building.

 

Wolfson Humanities Society

The Humanities Society organises regular talks spanning a wide range of topics which take place every Tuesday during term time - please sign up to their mailing list to keep up to date with their upcoming events.

 

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