Performance, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public
New work, commissioned by Parsons for OURS

"Lecture on Democracy as Word and Brand," a performance by sound artist Alexis Bhagat, activates Liam Gillick's platform ("Revised Sochaux Structure," 2008) with two opposing channels of pre-recorded audio. From the "fora"—the four benches included in Gillick’s installation—recordings made during a charrette that Bhagat conducted on October 27 with New School students play from four small speakers. An overhead loudspeaker, the "voice of authority,” delivers proclamations by Edward Bernays, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and others. Illustrating the opposing connotations of the word "democracy,” the "voice of authority" abuses the term, while the "fora" attempts to use it. Standing at a lectern, the artist reads a lecture on the history of the term "democracy" to the audience via radio. Considering democracy as an example of a "brand," the lecture urges the abandonment of this hollow term. The audience can tune in to the lecture via headphones, or listen to the opposing recordings on their own. At the end of the performance, the artist offers the microphone to the audience, inviting them to brainstorm terms to succeed "democracy."

Generated in collaboration with Jesal Kapadia and students of her “Witness and Intervention: Media” class at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts. Produced in collaboration with free103point9.

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