MIISTA AND LOST PROPERTY HOST HOXTON LECTURE SERIES

Letty Cole and Miista gather speakers in Hoxton to discuss silence, acoustic hierarchies, and communication technology.

article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista
article summarizes a lecture series titled The Silence That Speaks featuring four speakers at a Miista event in London.
Miista

Summary:

  • Letty Cole organized a series of lectures under railway arches in Hoxton focusing on silence and collective learning.
  • Speakers Hanna Elyse Girma and Eve Stainton explored how silence relates to social hierarchies and the creation of suspense.
  • Zaiba Jabbar and Claire Marie Healy addressed the role of language as technology and the cultural expectation of female restraint.

A crowd gathered under railway arches in Hoxton for an evening of lectures hosted by Miista and Lost Property. Letty Cole founded Lost Property to provide space for focused thought and collective learning. This event, titled The Silence That Speaks, invited participants to sit without phones and consider complex ideas. Four speakers offered different views on silence and communication.

Hanna Elyse Girma discussed silence as a tool of oppression. Girma identified an acoustic hierarchy where society interprets specific bodies, such as Black or poor bodies, as noisy before those individuals speak. Girma challenged the audience to consider whether their silence is a choice or a result of being silenced. Using a Gucci Mane lyric, Girma rejected the archetype of the beautiful silent woman in Western culture. Girma expressed a preference for the vocal energy of Riot Girl bands like Bikini Kill over the voicelessness of characters like The Little Mermaid.

Eve Stainton addressed silence through movement and the construction of suspense. Stainton moved wordlessly for the first half of the presentation to demonstrate movement as a language. This speaker examined cinematic techniques for building tension, citing the film Jaws as an example of withholding information. Stainton uses pacing and uncertainty to disrupt stereotypes and resist the creation of fully knowable characters.

Claire Marie Healy spoke about the phenomenon of yapper's regret after oversharing in conversation. Healy advocated for more noisy women in culture, pointing to characters in Éric Rohmer films as alternatives to restrained feminine archetypes. Zaiba Jabbar defined language as the original technology. Jabbar described the womb as a silent vessel and the primary infrastructure for transferring knowledge. Jabbar suggested rewilding communication to find new ways of co-existing with modern tools. The night concluded with audience questions, reinforcing the goal of making space for conversation. Letty Cole finished by quoting John Cage, who noted the absence of absolute silence and the existence of space to hear.

Share this article