Public Defence Doctoral Thesis: Margaux Schwarz
Margaux Schwarz has the pleasure of inviting you to the public defence of her artistic PhD project, Tone’s Digest: Relationality in the Maintenance Era, on Thursday, December 3, 2026, at KANAL - Centre Pompidou in Brussels.
The afternoon programme will begin with a visit to the sound installation CUT!, followed by the public doctoral defence. In the evening, a live radio show with the jury members will extend the research into a collective conversation.
CUT!
CUT! is a sound piece by Margaux Schwarz, which constitutes the concluding artistic presentation of her doctoral research project Tone’s Digest.
The work is presented as part of NO SHOW, a group exhibition conceived by artist duo Deborah Bowmann and musician Maoupa Mazzocchetti, and curated by Claire Contamine and Eliel Jones.
Doctoral Defence
Tone’s Digest: Relationality in the Maintenance Era is an artistic research project examining contemporary conditions of relationality and dialogicality through the lens of tone. In what I define as the “maintenance era”, marked by skepticism, uncertainty, immediacy and saturation, tone is approached not only as a vocal parameter but as a thermometer or an orientation device to understand how contemporary relations are constituted and negotiated (or not). Methodologically, the research primarily analyses recordings and transcriptions of orality, slowing down speech to foster close attention and listen not only to what is said, but to how it is said and in which context. Drawing on dramaturgy, performance, interactional linguistics, sound studies, BDSM studies, psychoanalysis and cultural analysis, the research treats tone as a “relational scene”. Echoing the iconic American magazine Reader’s Digest, the title itself suggests a method: assembling heterogeneous modes of address, practices and cultural objects of “our time” in order to understand, through tone, how we process, absorb, resist, or fail to digest reality.
The PhD research in the arts was conducted at Hasselt University and PXL-MAD School of Arts Hasselt under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Arne De Winde. Ed Atkins, Prof. Dr Anneleen Masschelein (KU Leuven), and Dr. Anneleen Swillen (PXL-MAD School of Arts) served as committee members. Dr. Jasper Delbecke (LUCA School of Arts), Prof. Dr. Chris Evans (LUCA School of Arts) and Prof. Dr Misha Kavka (ASCA, University of Amsterdam) will act as external jury members for the defence.
The research study was supported by the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University.
Meet the Jury - Live Radio Show
Following the doctoral defence, a Meet the Jury event brings the jury members together for a live radio conversation, in which the jury members will discuss the role of tone in the production of (dis)pleasure and friction(lessness) in present-day culture, on the basis of selected audio excerpts, which they will comment upon from their own disciplinary perspectives.
Programme
- 16:00 - 16:45 - CUT!, sound piece presented as part of the NO SHOW exhibition (Room 3, ticket required). Please note that the piece starts at 16:00 sharp.
- 17:00 -19:00 - Public PhD defence (Studio)
- 19:00 - 20:15 - Break and drinks at Brasserie Carrosserie (inside KANAL)
- 20:30 - 22:00 - Live radio show (BOX 2) - Meet the Jury
Attendance and Registration
The public doctoral defence and the Meet the Jury radio show are free and open to everyone.
Attendance at CUT! requires a ticket, which can be booked directly through the KANAL - Centre Pompidou website.
Date and location
- Thursday December 3 2026
- 16h00 - 22h00
- KANAL - Centre Pompidou, Square Sainctelette 21, 1000 Bruxelles,
Belgique