<< back to menu

‘Gelotologist’    2015

a multi channel audio-visual installation
duration: 15 minutes

video-documentation
 

On one of the walls of a more or less square room, a large 58 inch screen is hanged a bit below eye level. Ten tube-speakers are attached to the 4 walls, divided over the available space. In the middle of the room there’s a bench.

The work can be started by pushing a small button next to the screen. Duration: 15 minutes

 

‘Gelotologist’ starts with the image of a mouth in close-up that regularly bursts out laughing.

The staccato sound of each outburst is consecutively performed by the ten speakers, which results in a laugh moving around in the room. The laughter gradually transformes from gentle, to more violent and aggressive. 
Halfway through the work the direct linkage between sound and image is more often released. The sound continues, but the mouth slowly closes and the head moves backward into a state of immobility that refers to concentrated listening. The audio gradually evolves into a smooth composition of subtle throat sounds, fluttering through the exhibition-room.  It loses the connection with its physical background and thus becomes increasingly abstract. At the very end of the work this connection is abruptly and unexpectedly restored.

recorded at ‘Villa De Bank’ Enschede