My project, entitled Miscommunication, addresses the
language barriers common to non-native speakers.The installation contains an electronic sound device, which makes
altered multiple voice layers that are controlled by data gloves. To communicate with each other, most of us
use sound, as well as physical gestures. Even though sounds have specific meanings in their particular
contexts and uses, we often experience communication barriers with one another.
This raises some important questions:
How can we fully understand each other, and what is the alternative to
language? By exploring the connection
between movement and sound, meaning and perception, this piece confronts
viewers with an unintended communication barrier.
Through this work, I am also attempting to explore possible
methods of sound communication. I do this with a sound device that uses data gloves
to control the sound. As participants speak into the device while altering the
sound with the gloves, they can hear their multiple-layered voices being
irregularly manipulated, echoes controlled by the reaction of sensors in the
gloves. When they hear their duplicated voices though this device, they may
feel the confusion of many sounds in the space. Like a person who is calculating a math problem in one’s head,
friends shouting random numbers can create a distraction from the task at hand.
Similarly, my work, Miscommunication,
which makes altered multiple sound layers, allows participants to indirectly
experience the complexities of the communication barrier.
(c) copyright 1996-2006 Byeong Sam Jeon. All rights reserved.
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