People, Bottles, and Rivers All Have Mouths, 2017

This audio essay threads recordings from queer and trans*, theorists and artists into a dialogue with synthetic voices, to articulate the concept of The Slip.

 

The Slip was conceived as an attempt to communicate a sensation of suspension; it is the fabrication of an interstice between binaries, which is performed by speech. This work aims to consider the alliance that synthesised voices share with notions of transformation, ambiguity, aural presentation, and the construction of normatively. The intention behind the use of synthetic voices is to play with ideas of realness, performance, dis-embodied experience and speech as an awkward instrument for non-binary expressions. 


Sourced audio recordings featured in this work:

Butler, J. (2015). Judith Butler – 1/7 - “Why Bodies Matter” – Gender Trouble. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD6vifFTDLY.

Butler, J. and Nelson, M. (2017). Gender, Identity, Memoir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-g9tKSy4WY.

Cixous, H. (2007). Helene Cixous Interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKUQWv0irVw.

Dodge, H. (2014). Harry Dodge's The Time Eaters: Q & A. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSIvJf0dD1c&t=1321s.

Foucault, M. (2014). Foucault—The Lost Interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzoOhhh4aJg&t=290s.

Irigaray, L. (2013). Of relations and rights - interview with Luce Irigaray. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wufr2v3zjCM&t=95s.

Kristeva, J. (2007). Julia Kristeva - On Linguistics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXLUsoEDYPw&t=123s.

Nelson, M. and Dawn, A. (2017). One Book One SFU: Maggie Nelson and Amber Dawn in Conversation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6wsD9khaSQ&t=1616s.

​Nelson, M. and Laing, O. (2016). Maggie Nelson and Olivia Laing: The Argonauts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Yxhc2nNxo&t=120s.

Winnicott, D. (1960). The Ordinary Devoted Mother and Her Baby - Oxford Clinical Psychology. http://www.oxfordclinicalpsych.com/page/608/the-ordinary-devoted-mother-and-her-baby.