Art Block
Art Block
either/or
either/or is a sound performance concerned with the question how should we live? Intrigued by Kierkegaard’s proposal that we should choose between two opposing ways of life, either/or explores this polarity. By sounding out each position through audio games with words, texts, field recordings and speech recordings - the sound work creates a constant movement between each position, aiming to reconcile them both and create an expanded middle between the two.
The opposing ways of life are termed as 'either' - a life of aesthetics and conscious hedonism and 'or' - a life of ethics and responsibility. In the installation a speaker will be positioned at either end of the room and will voice each position, creating a spatial conversation bouncing from each side of the room. The work will play through a series of sound games, exploring how the voice is used in debates – pitch and intonation in persuasion and rebuttal and how found sounds, field recording and soundscapes can create new languages with which to debate - replacing verbal communication with the interpretative and fluid interchange of sound.
Through this, we interrogate sound's usefulness and limitations in presenting opposing arguments while creating a spatial experience. Chance procedures disrupt the debate - muddying the water between either and or, looking for life in the space and movement in between.
The work, made by Hannah Kemp-Welch and Lisa Hall, was first performed at Firstsite Gallery, Colchester, in May 2016.
Tags:
performance
Year:
2016