Echo: Sound Recording and Racial Violence in Contemporary Art History

press release:

Jane Blocker is a Professor of Art History and Associate Dean for Art and Humanities at the University of Minnesota.

Her public lecture, “Echo: Sound Recording and Racial Violence in Contemporary Art History” looks back to the infamously politicized 1993 Whitney Biennial and its inclusion of the amateur video showing five white police officers beating Rodney King, to consider the ways in which recorded sound serves as historical document. It draws together critical reactions to the Biennial, the performance practice of Anna Deavere Smith, and the story of Echo to think about the effect of racial violence on historical temporalities.