Tell the Story is a study on the misreadings arising from translating among casual speech, print, and digital media, and the not-so-transparent influence of digital media formats. This work is a preliminary inquiry toward future works adding an artistic component to the “After Combat” project of millennial war stories at Texas A&M University.
As the audience enters the installation space, they will hear spoken “verses” and “choruses,” drawn from historical accounts of war from transcribed interviews. The “verse” sections are read by Elisabeth Blair with audio glitches introduced by custom software, including dropouts, corrupted streams (as with a bad cellphone signal), and “scrubbing” sounds from rewinding/fast forwarding—such a common mode of taking in digital speech, nonlinearly. The chorus sections are read by many voices in heterophony, highlighting the multitude of inflection that readers might interpret as they read the transcriptions aloud.
As the audience reaches the inside of the installation area, they will see a screen inviting them to record a line of the chorus and join the crowd. Their voice will be heard along with the others who came before.
(Source: http://elo2016.com/festival/jeff-morris-elisabeth-blair/, Artist's Statement)
