As part of Eavesdropping, Liquid Architecture and Melbourne Law School are taking over Make it Up Club for a night of improvisations in the key of justice.
Legal scholar Sara Ramshaw will recount the famous 1997 encounter between musician Ornette Coleman and philosopher Jacques Derrida and what this meeting might have to say about ideas of law and justice.
Following this, Ramshaw will lead performances of Hydra, an experiment in legal advocacy adapted from John Zorn’s classic 1984 improvised musical game piece Cobra. Hydra is at once about oral agility and deep listening. It is concerned with rules more than rhythms and principles more than pitches, but always the necessity of judgment to performance, no matter the context.
This event will also feature short performances by members of the ALL EARS Eavesdropping reading group including Bruce Mowson, Ceri Hann, Fina Po, Debris Facility, Bryan Phillips, Klare Lanson, Thomas Ragnar, Georgina Criddle and Norie Neumark.
SARA RAMSHAW is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law with a special interest in improvisation. Her monograph, Justice as Improvisation: The Law of the Extempore (Routledge 2013) examined the legal regulation of jazz musicians in New York City (1940−1967) through the lens of poststructural theory informed by feminism,critical race theory and critical improvisation studies.
