The Freedom of Speech Itself

Abu Hamdan’s Aural Contract research project examines the politics of listening through a focus on the role of the voice in law, and takes the form of events, publications, performances, exhibitions, interviews, compositions and workshops.

For two years The Showroom worked with Abu Hamdan on Aural Contract: Parts 1 and 2, commissioned as part of the gallery’s participatory programme Communal Knowledge.

Following Aural Contract: Parts 1 and 2, The Showroom and Forensic Architecture at the Department for Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, commissioned Abu Hamdan to present the most recent stages of his Aural Contract research.

For this Abu Hamdan made an installation at The Showroom that centred on his new work, The Freedom of Speech Itself – an audio documentary looking at the the history and contemporary application of forensic speech analysis and voice-prints – and his extensive audio archive.

The exhibition was accompanied by series of events titled The Right to Silence, which was programmed in collaboration with Electra.

The Freedom of Speech Itself has since toured internationally.