UBCO student and faculty researchers present at TEXT/SOUND/PERFORMANCE in Dublin, Ireland.

At the end of April, a team of five UBCO researchers from the AMP Lab travelled to Dublin, Ireland to present work at the TEXT/SOUND/PERFORMANCE: Making in Canadian Space conference (April 25-27, 2019) held at University College Dublin and the National Library of Ireland. Mathieu Aubin (PhD candidate), Megan Butchart (Honours English candidate), Dr. Emily Murphy (Assistant Professor, Digital Humanities), Dr. Karis Shearer (Associate Professor, English), and Amy Thiessen (Honours English candidate) all presented new research. The event featured 125 Canadian and Indigenous poets, performance artists, and literary critics alongside over 75 Irish writers through the newly formed Associated Writers Program Ireland, and was reported in an article in the Irish Times.

 

Plenary Speakers & Performers. Photo: Karis Shearer
The AMP Lab crew in Dublin outside of Leo Kennedy’s Pub for the conference banquet. L-R: Megan Butchart, Emily Christina Murphy, Karis Shearer, and Amy Thiessen. Photo: Jason Wiens

On day one of the conference, Dr. Emily Christina Murphy delivered “Settler Flamencas: Genealogies of Spanish Dance and English-Language Poetries” in a collaborative performance-talk with Dr. Katherine McLeod (Concordia) who presented “Making Shadows with Recorded Sound: A Response to Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Audio Archives.”  Murphy and McLeod, both flamenco artists, alternated speaking and dancing.

Emily Murphy (UBCO) in performance collaborator Katherine McLeod (Concordia). Photo: Karis Shearer

Karis Shearer (in collaboration with Deanna Fong, who participated remotely through pre-recorded audio segments) presented “‘But you can’t put that in a book’: Feminist Close Listening in the SoundBox Collection” sharing the panel with Mathieu Aubin who spoke about “Writing Between the ‘Slippery Lines’: Lesbian-Feminist Kinship in Tessera.” Together their panel focused on “Mapping Feminist Relations and Labour across Media in Contemporary Canadian Literature.”

Karis Shearer, Deanna Fong, and Mathieu Aubin present on “Mapping Feminist Relations and Labour.” Photo: Amy Thiessen.

In collaboration with SpokenWeb Calgary team members Dr. Jason Wiens and Leah van Dyk (MA English candidate), the SpokenWeb UBCO team consisting of Dr. Karis Shearer, Megan Butchart (Honours English), and Amy Thiessen (Honours English) put together a panel on “Sound Pedagogies.” Both teams brought teacher and student perspectives to bear on the digital sound archive in the classroom and discussed a variety of assignments that invited critical examination of sound, interface design, user experience, recording practices, and archives.

Sound Pedagogies Panel. L-R: Amy Thiessen, Megan Butchart, Karis Shearer, and Jason Wiens. Just outside the frame: Leah van Dyk. Photo: Mathieu Aubin

The conference also featured a dazzling array of performances, master classes, and plenary talks:

Joshua Whitehead delivers his keynote “Indigenous Feral Oralities” to a packed house at the National Library of Ireland. Photo: Karis Shearer

 

Poets including Jordan Abel, Liz Howard, and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáinread read at the National Library of Ireland. Photo: Karis Shearer

The UBCO group found time before and after the conference to discover some highlights of Dublin’s cultural heritage as well. Megan, Amy, and Karis made their way to tour Trinity College Dublin’s Old Library housing the famous Book of Kells and the Long Room:

Amy, Megan, and the Book of Kells. Photo: Karis Shearer

 

The Long Room. Photo: Karis Shearer
The Long Room, Old Library, Trinity College Dublin. Photo: Karis Shearer

 

The Long Room, Old Library, Trinity College Dublin. Photo: Karis Shearer

 

Book of Kells detail on digital display. Photo: Karis Shearer

The team gratefully acknowledges the support of the SSHRC SpokenWeb Partnership Grant; Tuum Est Undergraduate Initiative (UBC Okanagan), and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (UBC Okanagan) for making this research travel possible.