Have you ever considered impossible sounds? Not sounds that exist at a frequency you can’t hear, but sounds that exist as an impossibility. An auditory illusion that counters the concept of something ‘real’. And in its impossibility, how do we experience it? Through illusions. Illusions are a way to explain the realities we live in. Or, one could argue, create the realities we live in. Time and space are humanity’s biggest lies, existing merely on the scope of our perception. That scope by and in itself is so weak that at some point we have made those illusions our reality. An excuse with import – we calling it alter ego, dream, hallucination, reason, hope or heaven. Sometimes we call it art. Surabhi Saraf’s sound performance ‘Spinning Four’ is layered with illusions. A familiar sound, the whirring of a fan, is initially experienced as what it is. A few minutes into the performance, the distortions begin. The impossibility lies in the textures of sounds: a combination of Surabhis hum, the fans whir, and all of a sudden your eyes start to listen to the fractured images, dancing with the shadows of the performer and her objects. Your eyes start to listen and your ears start to see.
Editor's Note.
Most of us are perpetually caught up in a hurricane of questions; questions that tease us, haunt us, keep us tossing and turning all night. We chase them around and around, rising and falling in their dizzy dance. At the eye of the hurricane lies a single question, blinking innocently at us in its stillness. As we enter it, all the rest fall away, and we are left with the only question worth answering.
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By Meenakshi Thirukode, Issue 26, Illusion: Seeing Beyond Seeing.
Also in this issue
Illusion: Seeing Beyond Seeing
Meaning: In Search of Significance.
Melody: A Different Tune
Rhythm: Ordering Time