MATTHEW BUCKINGHAM
             
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Within the Sound of Your Voice
 

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2007
Continuous black and white video projection installation, silent, dimensions variable
 
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This video work records dozens of nearly anonymous individuals hand writing the phrase from the title of the work. The figure of speech, “within the sound of my voice,” is often used to delimit a speaker’s audience, connoting the basic conditions for being understood through spoken language—that of listening and being heard. Writing extends speech across space and time. Writing also carries traces of sound in the phonetic associations that letters carry with them, allowing them to be read "aloud" once more. This silent black and white video presents the kinetic trace of that translation process, as words, representing speech, are re-written by hand. The viewer hears nothing and cannot read what is being written. Instead we witnesses a kind of subverted typology. The subtle differences in the way people use and move writing instruments becomes noticeable, but the accumulation of information does not allow for a conclusion.
 
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