The sound-art collective Ultra-red is concerned with the intersection of sound and politics. Collective listening procedures serve as the foundation of their exhibition Vogue’ology (at Parsons’ Aronson Gallery, November 17 through 30), which examines the possibilities for establishing an archive of the House/Ballroom community. These procedures have been deployed by the exhibition’s curatorial and archival teams to process and select fragments and phrases from House/Ballroom oral histories and vogue descriptions for the exhibition. Their interpretation will be further provoked and utilized to encourage visitors to move through the exhibition space. On the occasion of Vogue’ology, members of Ultra-red consider this intersection of sound and politics in a public event attended by artists, union organizers, historians and representatives of Ballroom ministries. The audience is invited to engage with sound as an object of reflection and with listening as a means of political organizing.

Facilitators
Ultra-red, as Dont Rhine and Robert Sember, 2009-2010 Vera List Center Fellow

Participants 
Edgar Riviera Colon and Rev. Jamaul Roots, Ballroom Ministries
Karen Hakobian, human rights advocate and musician
Paige Sarlin, artist and member of 16 Beaver
Alex Waterman, musician, writer, curator and member of Plus Minus Ensemble and Either/Or Ensemble

About Ultra-Red
Founded in California in 1994, the international sound art collective Ultra-red collaborates with constituencies involved in migrant rights, fair housing and anti-racist struggles, and efforts to combat the AIDS crisis. Recent projects include School of Echoes, a multi-year exploration of militant sound investigations initiated during a three month residency at Raven Row, London, in early 2009; Silent/Listen, an investigation of the conditions of the AIDS crisis in the U.S. and Canada presented in partnership with, among others, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; We Come From Your Future, an investigation of anti-racism movements in the United Kingdom, presented at Tate Britain, London; and Re:Assembly, a long-term project on migration and citizenship commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery, London. Their work can currently be seen at BAK Utrecht in the exhibition Vectors of the Possible.

This event is presented on the occasion of the Vera List Center’s 2009-2011 program cycle, “Speculating on Change.” It is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Vogue’ology, on view from November 17, 2010 to November 30, 2010.