The Greek Community of Melbourne presents

The John Berger Annual Lecture with Tina Stefanou

The planet hums in frequencies approximating D-flat, inaudible to human ears but resonating through oceans and rock. Wind turbines produce low-frequency swooshes as they spin—tones that join the anthropocacophony. Sonic weapons omit pitches that induce mass anxiety and illness. An accent can signify—and alienate. A voice can be reproduced, circulated, marketed, and disembodied into infinity. Grief cries and moans pass between humans and elephants. A rooster crows at shadows. Bushfires emit a forest’s death song. What is all this humming, this alarming of life and death ways?

Ways of Singing is a performative lecture that reimagines John Berger’s Ways of Seeing through the embodied, fugitive, and insurgent capacities of vocality. Where Berger critiqued the visual regime—its mechanisms of reproduction, commodification, and control—this lecture turns its ear toward the voice. It asks not simply what happens when voice becomes object, but what practices erupt when voice exceeds objecthood altogether. The lecture performs itself as séance, as improvised ensemble, gathering company otherwise—it is the social held in the mouth, and let go, together.

Bio:
Tina Stefanou is an artist with a background in music and voice, working undisciplined across mediums. Her practice spans experimental ethnographic film, performative environments, music, sculpture, and installation. A recent solo exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) received critical acclaim. Stefanou is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).

Location

The Greek Centre | Mezzanine
168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Contact Details

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