Seeing / Hearing / Speaking2002

A multimedia DVD/video with text, video (33 min), graphics and animation, 2002.




A multimedia/interactive DVD: "Seeing/Hearing/Speaking" has two parts, a new video, 2001. The total running time of the video is 33min, which may be seen continuously by clicking "Autoplay" at the menu. (The video version has only first part: "Seeing/Hearing/Speaking", 7min, b/w.)



Based on a sentence taken from the seminal book of Jacques Derrida, French philosopher, "Speech and Phenomena" translated by David B. Allison, I produced first video "Taking to Myself" in 1978 (revised in 2001). The video was highly appreciated as "the strongest, most effective statement one could make from the work of Derrida" by Professor Allison. The sentence I quoted, that Derrida calls "phenomenological essence", is that I hear myself at the same time that I speak.



The new DVD, not just a transfer of video, extends further with text, and graphics, which work interactively. In "Hearing/Speaking", for instance, you can choose among the monitors with the picture of face, head, ear and mouth in the video-installation, and can read/see different programs. So that you can perceive and localize "Hearing/Speaking" with the organs. Together with "Seeing" in this DVD, I could combine the perception of "Seeing" with "Hearing/Speaking". Besides "Talking to Myself", other related videos are "Talking in New York" (1981, revised in 2001) and "Talking to Myself at PS1" (1985).



Throughout these videos I have examined the validity of an identity in video, which is different from the actual voice, between "the I who hear" and "the I who speak." It extends also to "the I who see" and "the I who is seen". The text includes "A letter to Takahiko Iimura" by David B. Allison, and "On Talking to Myself" by Takahiko Iimura. (T.I)



Also available a four channel DVD installation, which requires 4 DVD projectors and speakers.