Pillow Talk (Oreiller) 

(2023)

Premiere presentation as part of Are (Sommes Sonnes), December 12, 2023, 10pm.

we wake sleeping and sleep waking and wake sleeping and sleep waking
— Lisa Robertson

Our ears are simply there, right on the sides of our faces, but they are apart.

Outside of our direct sight. Some hide under hair. Others stick out, because earrings adorn them, or physiognomy points to Dumbo. They are largely outside of our visual imaginary.

This is one of two videos produced that utilized materials gathered at a workshop where we concentrated ourselves on this organ through performative gestures utilizing various microphones to amplify, endoscopes to visualize, and other tools and objects to activate.

Workshop held at Avatar in Québec City, May 5, 13h – 16h30.

We used our own ears as well as silicone prosthetic ones.

By way of the sensuality of the sinuous outer ear, to the buildup of obtrusive wax, to the funnel that focusses frequencies, we considered unanswerable questions such as: How do ears rest? What do the ears of minerals, microbes, viruses, vegetables, planets, stars, and surfaces look like? Can animal listening open us up onto new abstractions?

The other video is titled Oreiller (Pillow Talk).

Participants: Marguerite Arbour, Lé Boucher Trudel, Stéphanie Letarte.

Commissioned text: Lisa Robertson.