Opening Night Performance, Lattice Structure of space-time, 21 Nov | Harun Morrison

How To Do Things with Non-Words: Choral Performance (2024)

Harun Morrison 

Duration: 15 minutes

Performances on 21 November at 18:30 and 19:30

Live Performance: 40 pairs of non-words sourced from the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders are the basis of a vocal score performed at the opening by nine singers from the Somerset House Community Choir. The score has been presented on a series of music stands across the gallery space.

Non-words in this context are devised by linguists and used by speech therapists to gauge aspects of language acquisition and proficiency. They typically follow the structures of words in a given language. One advantage of non-words in speech therapy is that they will not have been encountered by the subject of a non-word repetition test as they are not in a public circulation. The title of this work riffs on language philosopher J.L. Austin’s text How to Do Things with Words (1955/1962).” Since 2021, Harun Morrison, has worked with non-words, exploring how they can be used outside of diagnostic and assessment contexts.