Locating Grunow and Oram after celebrating the Bauhaus centenary: using parallel canonisation as a curatorial method to re-establish marginalised figures

Jovčić-Sas, A., 2023. Locating Grunow and Oram after celebrating the Bauhaus centenary: using parallel canonisation as a curatorial method to re-establish marginalised figures. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

Bauhaus Imaginista was a global exhibition celebrating the centenary of the German art school, the Staatliches Bauhaus. Its final exhibition chapter, Still Undead, which focused on the impact of the Bauhaus in Britain from 1933, took place at Nottingham Contemporary between 21 September 2019 and 12 January 2020. This study worked with these exhibitions to revise two theorists’ histories: Gertrud Grunow was an early Bauhaus master who used atonal music to establish links with colour and the natural world in harmonisation theory; Daphne Oram worked for the BBC in the 1950s and created a synthesiser, the “Oramics Machine”. Both used visual elements in their sound practice and are linked by synaesthesia, and both were omitted from the centenary exhibitions. This thesis explores these figures, first establishing their theories through their respective archives. Using written source material, the aim was to piece together harmonisation theory and Oramics to establish them as composition methods to explore and recreate using contemporary practices. These were then used as the basis for a commissioned work, which is presented in the curatorial section of this practice-led project. The research focused on how best to showcase the two marginalised figures in conjunction with the work of two contemporary artists. In this “parallel canonisation” process, three curatorial theories – revisionism, anti-canonisation, and minor histories – were applied to actively disrupt dominant canonical representations. The theories were examined by commissioning an electronic artist, Afrodeutsche, to work with the archive materials, creating a new composition. This was then shared with choreographer Martin Tomlinson to create an accompanying piece. The final showcase took place on 7 October 2021, in The Space at Nottingham Contemporary. These two new works presented Grunow’s and Oram’s historical materials with modern digital tools and practices, and it used a rhizomatic curatorial process that could further the practice of revising marginalised figures.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Jovčić-Sas, A.
Contributors:	Name Role NTU ID ORCID Çakirlar, C. Thesis supervisor ECM3CAKIRC orcid.org/0000-0003-1171-8635 Maier, D. Thesis supervisor VLA3MAIERD orcid.org/0000-0003-1738-2001
Date:	July 2023
Rights:	The copyright in this work is held by the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the author.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	28 Jun 2024 10:30
Last Modified:	28 Jun 2024 10:30
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/51645

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