Ana Luisa Cubas
Profession
MRes Art: Exhibition Studies student
College
Central Saint Martins
Person Type
Student
Biography
Ana Luisa is from Chicago, USA, and is currently a student on the MRes: Exhibition Studies programme at Central Saint Martins. Her research explores sound, archives and the politics of exhibition.
Interview
Please can you tell me a little bit about yourself.
My name is Ana Luisa, and I’m originally from Chicago. I’m currently in my second year of the MRes: Exhibition Studies program at Central Saint Martins.
Before arriving at Central Saint Martins, I studied at NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where I designed my own concentration titled Criticism as Curation in the Arts. I was interested in how the written word shapes not only how we interpret music, but how we carry it forward. At the time, I was working in music journalism and increasingly drawn to writing as a form of preservation — one that treats music not just as an event, but as an archive and a cultural trace.
Alongside my studies, I worked in various facets of the music industry as well, finding a particular fascination in music archives. With stints at Primary Wave, SiriusXM, Universal Studio Group, and Sony Music’s The Orchard, I developed a working fluency in rights management, licensing, and the material afterlives of sound. This experience forms a key part of my research practice — helping me understand not just how cultural materials are made, but how they’re managed, tracked, and preserved across platforms and institutions.
Why did you choose to study your course and why CSM?
I pursued a research-focused master’s in Exhibition Studies — an interdisciplinary field concerned with the histories, politics, and possibilities of display. At its core, Exhibition Studies asks how art is presented, who it addresses, and which power structures shape its circulation. What drew me to the programme was not simply the study of exhibitions, but the broader questions it enables: how archives are constructed, how memory is staged, and how art operates in relation to its publics.
I was seeking a programme that not only accommodates interdisciplinarity but understands it as essential to expanding the histories and conversations surrounding my research. Central Saint Martins offered a framework in which writing, curatorial thinking, and sonic inquiry could converge, allowing me to investigate how sound moves through institutions, resists visual dominance, and might be exhibited on its own terms. The programme provided the intellectual depth and critical space necessary to pursue this work with rigor and specificity.
What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on so far? What made it so interesting to work on?
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed having over a year to engage with my dissertation for the Master’s in Research. I have been researching the Majazz Project, an independent Palestinian sound archive, as a counter-archival practice operating under conditions of sonic surveillance and institutional containment. It argues that Palestinian sonic memory persists within — and against — these structures, where sound is forced to function simultaneously as cultural and historical imaginary and as forensic evidence of existence. By treating listening as method, the project reframes the archive as a site of resistance in which sound refuses stabilization, remaining a living force rather than a settled record.
This project, and the resources provided through the Exhibition Studies pathway, provided great depth in understanding the histories of sonic archives within institutional spaces, particularly in relation to the hierarchies of the senses that structure dominant modes of presentation. It underscored the necessity of understanding music and sound as mutable, embodied, and inherently political — capable of existing in a continual state of transformation as sites of memory, disruption, return, and possibility.
While much of my prior education and research focused on the construction of historical narratives in music, this framework allowed me to develop a more expansive approach to sound — one attentive to its roles in presentation, preservation, and the formation of identity.
Have you completed any work placements / internships whilst being on the course? If so, can you tell me a little bit about your role?
'I completed a work placement as a Research Fellow (Digital Archiving Placement) with Afterall. My role involved archival research, cataloguing, and working with Afterall’s digital archive, supporting projects that trace the histories, formats, and politics of exhibitions. The placement strengthened my engagement with research-led curatorial practice, particularly around how archival materials are structured, interpreted, and made accessible within publishing and institutional contexts.
What important piece of advice would you give to students thinking of studying this course?
Come prepared to think slowly and rigorously. The course cultivates a sustained practice of research, writing, and critical reflection for those willing to question inherited frameworks and remain with uncertainty — a practice that extends beyond the programme and supports work across disciplines, roles, and stages of life.
What has been the highlight of your CSM experience so far?
I have taken advantage of the incredible workshops available to students within Central Saint Martins, such as Publications and Digital Fabrications. These spaces allowed me to return to artistic experimentation and material practice, supported by the instruction, and a high degree of trust, from staff. Central Saint Martins fosters exploration through opportunities like these, allowing me to fall back in love with the practice, as well as the research, of art.
What are your career aspirations? Where would you like to be in five years time?
This coming year, I will begin a PhD in Musicology, focusing on sonic surveillance and its relationship to the archive in contexts of political violence, with particular attention to South America. What drew me to musicology was not only its subject matter, but its method — its capacity to move across disciplines, hold contradiction, and attend carefully to sound as a historical and political force.
My research will continue to examine sound and music in relation to presentation, performance, and institutional framing, while my longer-term goal is to teach at the university level. I hope to develop courses that equip students to think critically about sound’s entanglement with archives, power, and visual culture, and to model research that is both rigorous and imaginative across disciplinary boundaries.
What is the most important thing you've learnt on the course so far?
Treat research as a sustained practice rather than a linear process.