DR JAMES BARRY WORKSHOPS (2024)
From 22 to 24 April 2024, The Centre for the Less Good Idea and the SO Academy hosted a workshop led by South African composer and sound artist Philip Miller, composer and opera singer Tshegofatso Moeng, and contemporary visual artist from Cork, Ireland, Aideen Barry.
Supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, the exploratory workshop centred around the notion of the Somatic Voice and saw Barry leading exercises in conceptualising and creating stop-frame animations, while Miller and Moeng facilitated the digital and physical manipulation of the voice as a means of exploring fluidity, identity and more.
While focussing largely on these themes, the workshops took as a conceptual point of departure, the life and work of the late military surgeon Dr James Barry. Barry, who was assigned female at birth, lived his entire adult life as a as a man in both public and private life, at least in part in order to be accepted as a university student, and to pursue a career as a surgeon. Barry's anatomy became known to the public and to military colleagues only after a post-mortem examination.
CREDITS
FACILITATORS | Aideen Barry, Philip Miller & Tshegofatso Moeng
PARTICIPANTS | Pertunia Msani, Calvin Ratladi, Kaldi Makutike, Nthabiseng Malaka, Natalie Paneng, Nqobile Ngomane, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Daphne, Llewellyn Mnguni, Siya Makuzeni, Albert Ibokwe Khoza & Ann Masina