Concept for the exhibition SOUND
Communication starts within oneself before there can be communication with another person.
One of the major topics of the 21st century is the question about what distinguishes humans from machines.
There seem to be two major elements that have to be taken into consideration.
Humans are the only species on earth that can keep a rhythm as a group and can even use that energy to collaborate in physical labor. Sound and singing have an impact about healing the body after an infarct, partial loss of speech, or diseases like Parkinson.
Humans can be distinguished from machines not by their intellect but by their higher moral ability to view the world in a way that only humans can.
Animals can have a lower moral ability as in “if I help you, than you will help me” but not the altruistic action as in “it should be like that and I will do it even though nobody might know about it”.
The feeling of the rhythm and the question of what it might mean to be human combine in the ability to listen within oneself. It is to be able to open up to the rhythm of sequences of memories and one´s own subjective response to them. It is self-reflection that will lead us to questions about truth and about what might be essential to make us humans and thus reform this world into a humane society.
The work
The image is a collage of a man and a woman, each one alone and deep within their thoughts. One focus is on the female face, the other of one arm of the male; a combined male and female energy as a metaphor for the intertwining of individuality and society.
The sound is a collage. Within it you can distinguish the text of “emet – truth”, and the text “listen to what is essential, express what is essential, what is essential?”
Norma Drimmer
August 2020
