Overview

The Cosmic Oval is an elliptical entrance into an exploration of feminist cosmologies, storytelling and the many ways of knowing and imagining the hot blue beginnings of time. By turn dreaming and waking, Ella Finer’s essay enters history and imagination from the sleep side, taking its cue from Anne Carson. Finer attends to cultural memory as composition, gathering cosmic guides with whom to listen beyond what is given to hear. In west London, the entrance to architect and theorist Charles Jencks’ Cosmic House is overlooked by The Cosmic Oval, a representation of the origin of the universe referencing both contemporary scientific discoveries about its elliptical shape and ancient cosmogonic myths. Invited by the Cosmic House to write an imagined conversation between figures who inhabit the frieze surrounding the Oval, such as Hannah Arendt, Imhotep and John Donne, Finer re-orchestrates cultural history to explore social scenes of study and the way knowledge moves through bodies and time.

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9781068240904

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Ella Finer’s work in sound and performance spans writing, composing, and curating, with a particular interest in how bodies acoustically disrupt, challenge, or alter the occupation of space. Her research continually queries the ownership of cultural expression through sound, often through collaborative projects that centre on listening as a practice of deep attention, affiliation and reciprocity. She is working on a book of essays, Acoustic Commons and the Wild Life of Sound, while Silent Whale Letters, a correspondence project with Vibeke Mascini and edited by Kate Briggs, was published by Sternberg Press in 2023.

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