A Single Statement | |
Notebook in frame, newsprint, Hum-A-Zoo, speech recording (3'23" loop), headphone, shelf | |
Sound: | |
Oral speech as an ancient and primitive form of communication is adopted in verbalizing a text of self-negation as experimentation from my notebook. Speaking though a Hum-A-Zoo (a charming little version of a kazoo) with heavy artificial reverberation implying a large space obscures the speech to be incomprehensible. The linguistic rhetoric is rendered inaccessible, and the acoustic rhetoric, especially the structure and dynamics of the pseudo-public speech, is instead highlighted. At certain 'climax' points, the notable buzzing sounds of distortion from the Hum-A-Zoo are humorous disruptions into this superficially serious speech. With the absence of the orator or its representative such as a loudspeaker, the individual encounter with the sound of a supposedly public speech through headphones diminishes its efficacy while making it personal and slightly abnormal. A few formally antithetical matters are touched upon in this work, such as ornamentation versus the plain, personal statement versus public manifesto, unpredictability versus predictability, seriousness versus flippantness, and egotistic self-importance versus universal oblivion. |
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