FRI 23/08
LECTURE * FEEDBACK * PhDStart — 20:30
Location — Intro’s pop-up space, Pancratiusstraat 48 Heerlen
This lecture-performance reflects on developments within Luca Soudant’s PhD project. Luca studies the relationship between sound, gender, power and soial structures in entanglements of the human and the non-human. When a human body and an object meet, such as the tapping of high heels and the growling of engines, sounds are created that in a Western cultural context have a gendered meaning. Within this subject, Luca examines various objects, including the historical scolding bridle.
The scolding bridle is a metal construction originating from late medieval Europe and intended to literally silence assertive and headstrong women. There were different bridles with different mouthpieces: some pushed the tongue down to make talking impossible, while others had sharp edges or spiky points to inflict injuries when women tried to speak. Like many other instruments of discipline, oppression, and violence, muzzling was imposed by Europeans in other parts of the world. In the Americas, white plantation owners used a similar object, sometimes called the “mask of muteness,” to subdue, exploit, and control enslaved African people.