Expanded Oralities Lab – Montréal

Between August 23 and 27, 2023 members of the Expanded Oralities Cluster gathered in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. The Lab explored oralities through various practices and frameworks including soundscapes, puppetry, and commemoration, while also expanding what oralities means through a disability justice lens. 

The residency was organized by Concordia PhD students and cluster RAs T Braun and Franklin Reynel Bonivento Van Grieken, and Oralities co-leaders Kim Sawchuk and Paolo Vignolo. 

During the five-day residency, participants engaged in various activities. Mark Sussman led a Toy Theatre workshop which resulted in three splendid short pieces (and the desire of several cluster members to become puppeteers!). Franklin and Paolo took the idea of ‘expanded oralities’ as a prompt for an exploratory sound workshop where participants responded to a curated playlist through movement, drawing, writing, and storytelling. Dot Tuer presented on Espacio de Memoria RI9 in Corrientes, Argentina. Her presentation opened up a discussion about silence and memory, thus challenging ideas around oralities. Menka Nagrani presented an excerpt of First Name Basis, a performance devised with Concordia students and artists from the inclusive performance company, Des pieds Des mains. After the show, there was a talk-back and movement workshop led by performers from the company. Véro Leduc and her collaborators from the project À nos prothèses shared their research-creation on their relationships with their prosthetics.

The gathering closed with a visit to PhD student Andrea Trembly’s mind.heart.mouth & Living Lab garden at Concordia’s Loyola Campus, where the group harvested produce and made a communal dinner. In between and throughout the residency, the cluster held rich discussions, posed questions, and envisioned ways the cluster could continue to unfold.