More from Joan Schuman
Bound
(00:02:43)
From: Joan Schuman
A bound voice asks questions about the disturbing loss of language, along with a whole culture.
Gagged
(00:01:02)
From: Joan Schuman
A fictional inquiry by a gagged voice about the dead stories we tell.
Stutter
(00:01:12)
From: Joan Schuman
A bound voice returns to ask questions about the loss of language.
This Beautiful Carcass
(00:11:48)
From: Joan Schuman
On a desolate beach in Northern California's Humboldt County, a marine biologist and a citizen scientist troll for bird carcasses, inadvertently finding beauty and perhaps ...
Cicatrix
(00:02:51)
From: Joan Schuman
This piece resonates in regenerative acts, resiliency, rootedness and irreparably damaged nerves as it tries to imagine one woman's language of war.
Ligature
(00:18:49)
From: Joan Schuman
A conversation loosely based on the lives of Daisy and Violet Hilton whispers in the warmth of bedding that two bodies inhabit. The twins' literal ligature extends the ...
Residence Elsewhere
(00:11:04)
From: Joan Schuman
Non-narrated stories of urban nomads contemplating staying or leaving.
Comfort
(00:02:00)
From: Joan Schuman
Part of the audio sketch series Micro-Texts, exploring culture and technology.
Coming To America
(00:02:00)
From: Joan Schuman
Part of the audio sketch series Micro-Texts, exploring culture and technology.
Piece Description
A husband and wife meet at a yoga retreat where he's studying to become a monk. They barely interact until a romance sparks a new challenge: how to communicate when one of them is practicing complete silence. The couple's story spans their first year of silence and how, ultimately, they were forced to break the silence practice for good. Overlapping recollections of details along with sound metaphors (gagging of the voice with a cloth, shattering of glass, pencil scratching across a chalkboard) fill the non-narrated feature. "Silence" can air alone, but it is best broadcast in the series, "Speech Acts" -- total length (27:03). Suggested airplay order is as follows: 1. Bound 2. Echo 3. Gagged 4. Silence 5. Stutter
3 Comments
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Review of SilenceI enjoyed this piece because it had the two necessary parts of a good story, according to Ira Glass: 1. Story moves along in an interesting way, 2. Self reflection. The overlap between the two speakers is interesting to listen to; however, I would have liked to hear more structure to their story.
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Review of Silence
A fascinating experiment in sound that I can see wowing audiences at audio festivals. But more food for the perennial debate ? ?Yes, but is it good radio??
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Broadcast History
The series and/or individual pieces have aired at the following venues:
2006
-Technical Breakdown, listening posts installation, Forum for Sound Art (Copenhagen)
-2-CD catalogue, Technical Breakdown www.aux.dk
2005
-Magnetic Tape, WZBC-FM, Boston
2004
-Re: sound, WBEZ-FM, Chicago
-Where?s the Beat? Radio McGill, CKUT-FM, Montreal
2003
-Radio Lab, WNYC-FM, New York
-The Radio Chronicles, KPFA-FM, Berkeley
-Audible Woman, CIUT-FM, Toronto
2002
-ResonanceFM, London
-Radio Eye, The Night Air, Australia Broadcasting Corporation
2001
-The Next Big Thing, WNYC-FM, New York
-art@radio, WMBC-FM (online)
-Third Coast International Audio Festival (online)
-d>art 01, dLux media arts festival, Paddington, Australia
-Digital Thaw Festival, Institute for Cinema & Culture , University of Iowa
2000
-Outer Ear, Festival of Sound, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago





T. G. LaFredo
Posted on June 13, 2008 at 06:26 AM | Permalink
Review of Silence
This is really good, really interesting. Initially I wasn't sure about the presentation--about having the two of them talking at once. I guess I'm still not, but that's what tells me this is good art. It stays with you. It gives you problems to solve and you find yourself coming back to it later.
It captures the imagination to think their courtship took place in silence. And when they finally talk? He's got a Southern accent and she sounds Canadian. That's amusing.
Who gets the last word here? She does, which we might expect. But, what does she say? Ironically, it's, "...just shut up."
Nice.