performing_sounds

»performing_sounds« presents works from the ZKM_Video Collection that address the phenomenon of speech and thus provide an ideal foil for the simultaneous Phonorama exhibition, which is devoted to the historical development and significance of the human voice as a medium.
The works exhibited focus on speaking as a social act, as a means of communication, a physical expression and a discourse of language and technology and hence as a process of dialogue between man and machine. Language is debated as a basic element of verbal communication in all its facets – from the formulation of terms via the vocal apparatus to the physically painful experience and bodily exertion involved in articulation, in which language is again dissected into sounds. The works selected include videos from the 1970s and 1980s that deal with the visualisation of language and the acoustic manipulation of images as well as works that attempt to portray the time factor as a process-related experience. This documentary function of video as a means of recording performances and happenings is accompanied by research into the technical potential of the medium itself. An analysis is made of the relationship between image and sound and the way they can be influenced in technical terms, and a direct link established between them.