What are you doing?
P3V1 is a performative sound installation which derived from my experience towards learning a 'new language'. It's main focus is the not knowing what I’m reading (which is written in another language), trying to translate the text, but since It's build out of abbreaviations the the text is still not clear. This is performed live while I read the translations that come out of the printer, to you, and you; the audience, ending up as confused as I am.
The essence of the work is about the online way of how Indonesians communicate under a post on facebook. A big part of my friends on the social-media-platform are family members, half of them, are Indonesian. I’m in a fb-group that is mostly people from the village where my mom grew up, Sepang the village is called. I’m in this group so I would be more up to date with what happens over there, and what they are talk about. I still don’t get what they’re saying, even though I can follow a person-to-person conversation. But the text is build up out of many abbreviations, which is making me confused.
To give an example:
“Kl memang peduli sm kmpg harusnya di ban- gun infrastrukturnya....jgn pd saat kmpanye sj krn mau di dukung br koar2 sanasini peduli sepang .....dari sy lahir smpe skrg jalanan msh bgtu2 sj .....mgkn kl di tenggelamkan di buatkan jalanan yg lbh bagus .”
How I read it:
“Kl (Kl what?) memang peduli sm (sm in what way...?) kmpg (something with kilometers or kampong?) harusnya di bangun infrastrukturnya (infrastruc- ture!) jgn pd saat kmpanye sj krn mau(want) di dukung br koar2 (2. what is this 2?!) sanasini peduli sepang (the village!).....dari sy lahir smpe skrg jalanan(walking) msh bgtu2(...again the 2?) sj .....mgkn kl di tenggelamkan di buatkan jalanan(walking) yg lbh bagus(back) .”
Peer-feedback: (without explaining the work)
- felt like watching a secretary
- sound wise great, rhythm of talking over a print
- interesting how you’re trying to keep up with the print
- constantly trying to guess which language it is
- the different lengths of messages are interesting
- do you actually know what you’re saying? You
once apologized because you said a word wrong. It seemed like it was the first time for you reading it too - felt the opposite way, it was like you knew what everything was
- the setup on the desk is fitting, also that you asked the audience to stand on the other side
- would be nice if you’d have 1000s of receipts and have them pile up
- being able to anticipate the end made a big differ- ence to the end
Peer-feedback: (after explaining the work)
- you didn’t sound very confused to the listener; where is the potential of making the viewer engaged and confused
- made me think of the “your unerasable text” by Stefan Tiefengraber where there is a print coming out of the printer, straight into a shredder.
