sonic contagion
Sound can be dangerous – it penetrates, transgresses borders, infects, moves into, out of and between bodies and minds. This work explores the body/mind as affected and infected by inner sounds – our own and others – its movements and responses only partiality within our control. The sonic virus controls us and wants to be passed onto others. The sonic virus negates our boundaries - between inner and outer, between us and the other.
The sounds in Sonic Contagion highlight listening at the threshold at its most dangerous. The sounds in are (inner) sounds that invade—whether you want them to or not—and take over. We are just the hosts, to be used and discarded as needed.
These inner sounds move freely between humans, untroubled by our attempts at controlling and containing them.
It taps into one reason as to why we might think of sounds as dangerous - our inability to control them, and their ability to penetrate, cross walls and even cross our carefully maintained boundaries of self.
Video Description:
In a large room, with large windows, chairs are stacked on one side of the room. The artist is a white woman with short hair, dressed in a white nightshirt, black leggings and barefoot. What looks like restraints are trailing from her wrists. She is gagged with what looks like bandages over her mouth. She scribbles in a notebook, and walks over to the audience members, handing one of them the note from her notebook. She then takes their hands and tries to move with them in what looks like dance moves. This is repeated with several other audience members.