Ventriloquial bodies: Re-framing ephemerality in artists’ film & video

This paper considered the aural overlaps between feminist performance and artists’ moving image in London during the late-1970s and early-1980s. Discussion drew from on-going post-doctoral research into the intersections between experimental sound/music and artists’ film/video in London during this timeframe. In direct response to the themes raised in the call for this conference (particularly aural epistemologies; sound archives and archaeology), the paper explored the dynamics of the sounded voice within these practices, questioning canonised perception of the ‘disembodied voice’ in film/media studies (Chion, 1999; Silvermann, 1984).

The paper discussed the voice in relation to the performances of the Feminist Improvising Group (FIG) in the 1970s, whose work was then included in a number of seminal feminist films at the time, including Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s AMY! (1980). Taking-up Rebecca Schneider’s questioning of ephemerality and the archive in ‘Performance Remains’ (2001), discussion unpacked the 'ventriloquial' (Connor, 2000) dynamics of the voice, to consider the dual situation through which it both detaches from and reconnects to/with other subjects and objects, particularly in moving image. This paper tentatively posits an alternative positioning of the language associated with film/video/performance and archives: re-situating ephemerality as a state of liminal transformation as opposed to dematerialised disappearance.