insignificant audio-performance in three acts
sound research on the modes of listening and understanding, april 2021
premiered at the Festival of Spooky Action at a Distance
created by Bohdana Korohod and Maria Paiste
recording, mixing and streaming by Bohdana Korohod
supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, eˉlektron
The work was created during the times of distancing, isolation, and covid-related lockdowns. At the heart of it is an attempt to stay together, to connect to each other despite the distances and restrictions.
At the period when life was transferred to Zoom and almost every act of communication was mediated by technologies, could it even be possible to define what where and when meant? How could we find gateways to each other through all those zeros and ones, languages we didn’t share and voices produced by machines?
Throughout February-April 2021 two artists, Bohdana Korohod and Maria Paiste, were communicating exclusively through text and voice messages. The mentioning of a darkness in the room of one led to playing sound compositions with the light switch by another.
The audio-performance consists of three acts, “Where”, “When” and “How”. Each act is an attempt to capture these ephemeral notions via everyday sounds and thoughts. The phrases read during the performance by Bohdana and Maria are excerpts from their messaging history, re-ordered and translated into conventional sounds.
“I couldn’t breathe. And I wondered whether technology had enough room to transmit it.”