A Public Hearing
Installation, Performance / 2016 / In collaboration and as part of MA Research Architecture 2016

Developed as part of Everyday Urbanism: Architecture as Social Process at Arts Catalyst, this collaborative project examined the form and function of the public hearing within the rapidly changing context of King’s Cross. Workshops with a barrister and vocal coach, alongside a performance by the Navadina Choir, approached “hearing” as both a civic procedure and an embodied act.

The research traced the public hearing to the enclosure of common land in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, when public meetings were used to petition Parliament and later hear objections to proposed enclosures.

The project critiques the public hearing as a flawed model of engagement. Although presented as an opportunity for public input, hearings often take place after key decisions have already been made. Rather than enabling meaningful participation, they can become bureaucratic performances through which an image of public consent is produced.
MA Research Architecture Students: Dana Abbas, Ree Bradley, Sophie Dyer, Phoebe Eustance, Greg McClaren, Ming Lin, Robert Preusse, Blanca Pujals, Solveig Suess and Leonie Weber
Group Residency | Arts Catalyst Gallery
Workshop Coordinators | Ousman Noor, barrister, and Christopher Holt, vocal coach
Performance | Navadina Choir

Installation Views | Arts Catalyst Gallery, London, UK, 2016

Supported by | Arts Catalyst, London and Sheffield, UK; Goldsmiths University, London, UK