babel
2012, sound collage, chicken wire, bedding, speakers
babel is a sound piece of Kant’s Categorical Imperative recorded in sixteen languages (English, French, Chinese, Hungarian, Romanian, Spanish, Farsi, Greek, Danish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, German, Japanese, Turkish, Urdu and Hebrew).
The recording unfolds gradually. One language begins, joined by another, each remaining individually audible before merging with the next. As more voices accumulate, the text slowly dissolves into a dense murmur in which individual languages can no longer be distinguished.
The Categorical Imperative proposes a universal moral principle and reminds us of our responsibility towards ourselves and the Other. While the message remains constant, its growing multiplicity transforms clarity into ambiguity, questioning whether a universal ethical ideal can remain intact once it passes through the diversity of human language, culture and experience.
Embedded within a cloud, the sound becomes audible only when standing beneath it. In one installation, the cloud occupied a bathroom and was activated by the light switch, bringing a universal ethical proposition into an intimate, everyday space.
I thank my artist fellows for participating and for their time researching the quote in their mother tongue (which turned out to be quite a challenge at times); and for having lent me their inner rhythms and voices:
Shay Arick, Pabi Chulo, Ufuk Dogan, Tom Loughlin, Andreanne Michon, Ma Li, Stefan Jora, Manuela Ochoa, Francisco Pinhero, Sogol Rezvani, Ouater Sand, Dimitra Skandali, Saher Sohail, Sho Tsunoda, Michal W. Wisniewski.