AUDIO VISUAL ENSEMBLE – OPEN REHEARSALS @ REFERENCE POINT
Friday 12 September, 7pm–Midnight Reference Point, London WC2R 3DA
September marks the launch of a new night at Reference Point, curated by interdisciplinary media artist and Somerset House Assembly resident Daniel Oduntan. Just around the corner from his studio at Somerset House, Oduntan brings the Audio Visual Ensemble (A.V.E.) to RP for the first in a continuing series of intimate, open rehearsals. Each edition will focus on a different subject that Oduntan is researching, offering audiences a rare chance to witness artists, creatives, and researchers thinking out loud, testing ideas, and sharing unfinished movements across sound, image, and memory.
For this first edition, Oduntan collaborates with voice artist and composer Roxanne Tataei. Together they present a growing body of work using conduction techniques inspired by Lawrence “Butch” Morris. The session collapses the boundaries between artist and audience, rehearsal and performance, creating a living archive of sound, image, and collective improvisation. Their collaboration explores the Black mundane — the intimacies and overlooked moments of everyday life.
These compositions are expanded through the preservation notes and images of Hood Century, founded by Jerald (Coop) Cooper. Hood Century reframes mid-century modern architecture and Black domestic space as sites of cultural history. Born from a need to document, expand, and express the spatial realities of Californian communities, Coop has scaled his research to consider and incorporate many other neighbourhoods in this ongoing six-year plus study of hood preservation.
The evening unfolds in three parts: an open-format DJ set by Oduntan, an open rehearsal with Tataei shaped by images and unfinished compositions, and a closing discussion and DJ set from Jerald (Coop) Cooper.
Note: Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
