Reading Group Livity with Dharma Taylor

Join us for an interactive reading and listening group with Dharma Taylor as we explore sociocultural vibes and the crowd’s sensitivity to the sound system.

In this session, we will collectively read a passage from the book Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sounds Systems, Performance Techniques and Ways of Knowing by Julian Henriques as well as watch archival video footage of dub dance sessions. We will discuss ideas of sociocultural vibrations that are embodied in the crowd’s ways of doing and knowing with attitude, fashion and lifestyle (in Jamaica this is called ‘livity’.)

This event is free and open to all! It is a supportive and peer-led space for thinking and learning together. It is a space for constructive disagreements and critical engagement that is always based on mutual respect, interest, and care.  Extracts will be read together in the group. You don’t need to read them in advance.

This reading group is part of iniva’s Research Network programme Contested Sites. It is supported by funding from Freelands Foundation.

Accessibility

If you have any access requirements, please email us in advance at info@iniva.org and we will do our best to accommodate. Extracts of the texts will be provided on the day.

Biography

Dharma Taylor is a multidisciplinary designer and maker with a background specialising in menswear and textiles. She graduated from Rochester University for the creative arts with a BA in Fashion Design and the London College of Fashion with an MA in Menswear. She has developed her practice and explored working with new material, Dharma’s way of combining textiles with woodwork produces works of great beauty and deceptive simplicity. Over the past few years through research-based projects, she has sought to observe aspects of the society and systems in which we exist. Inspired by diverse sources, from technology and poetry to ancient civilisations and cultural plurality.

Resources

Read: Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sounds Systems, Performance Techniques and Ways of Knowing by Julian Henriques, Chapter 1

Watch: King Earthquake at Stratford REX, 2006

Watch: Jah Shaka in Parklands Brum / Aba-Shanti-i in Leicester , 2004

Listen: Burial – Untrue

Image credit: Tanum Sound