This performance was based on a tape made by my grandmother, in which she recorded an “audio letter” to my parents while they were living overseas in the 70′s, when international calls were rare or unavailable in Israel. In the letter she describes the course of her day, including live newscasts and household sounds. She died when I was very young and so this recently found tape is the only “memory” I have of her voice. In the performance we lived out a day of our own, in real time, in the living room of an old house in Jerusalem (her home city). This enactment was constantly sampled and broadcast to the nearby dining room table, where the tape recorder containing my grandmother’s audio tape was playing. The table was also populated by an old lamp of hers which I wired to react to the sound coming from the tape recorder facing it, and a small tv monitor, broadcasting our live performance (though we were 10 feet away and clearly visible).
The location itself is Shevet Ahim childrens’ hospice, on Hanevi’im St. in Jerusalem, we were offered the space as
part of the Hearat Shulaim festival organized by the Sala-manca Group.
Live durational performance; Media: Household objects, food and drink, old tape-recorder, casette, audio-reactive lamp, head mounted camera, tripod camera, contact microphone, custom video software
Voice recording: Yael Flum, Audio: Daniel Davidovsky
Duration approx 6 hours
