ResearchWorks: The Echo, the Ear and the Opening: the radical use of speculative imagining

An experiment, a performance lecture, a thinking-out-loud. Inspired by the writings of Saidiya Hartman, Donna Haraway and Jose Munoz, among others, Emily Orley begins by rethinking the ancient Greek myth of the nymph Echo. Emily proposes to use this exercise to discuss the value of creative-critical writing, imaginative license, and speculative thinking, which she posits as necessary and radical tools in a world that finds itself in social, political and ecological crisis. Indeed, in the face of extreme cuts to the arts and arts education in this country, it becomes increasingly urgent for artists, researchers and educators to articulate their practices in new ways.

As an experiment, of course, it might not work. What if it doesn’t? And what if it does?

Speaker

Emily Orley is a London-based artist, researcher and educator, working with performance, video, installation and hybrid modes of writing. She is interested in exploring ideas around memory, maintenance and solidarity, as well as investigating ways to un-fix notions of time and place. Always open to new forms​ of experimentation, she is inspired by lively discussions, new encounters, and unlikely assemblages.

As a practitioner-researcher, with a mixture of academic, artist and physical theatre training, she is a firm believer in breaking down the false binaries that separate practice and theory, making and thinking and writing about making.

At the moment she works at Guildhall School, where she is Programme Leader on the MA in Collaborative Theatre Production and Design, supervises PhD students, and runs postgraduate workshops on practice-as-research and creative-critical writing.

Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the School and its guests with students, staff and the public.