“I Have Something to Say That’s Peculiar”: Activating the Experimental Sound Recordings of Mildred Thompson

Abstract:When the artist Mildred Thompson passed away in 2003, she left behind a broad but little-known legacy. Known as a painter and sculptor, Thomson also created elaborate electronic soundscapes that mirrored her visual explorations of magnetic fields, cosmic space, and unseen phenomena; however, the recordings of these compositions, held at Emory University, were largely inaccessible until digitized in coordination with a 2019 exhibition at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. The role of digitization and an engaged stakeholder community in activating the collection and enriching the understanding of Thompson’s life and work is explored as an iterative endeavor, in which achieving a more inclusive access to audiovisual heritage is not a linear process but rather the product of sustained dialogue between archive and community, combining institutional and collective knowledge and resources.