Paradoxical Creatures

ARTIST’S BOOK

The subtle boundary between imagination and sound is like thin tissue paper. It is a constantly oscillating, fragile membrane. Can we hear sound through words and do we hear words while reading?

Paradoxical Creatures is a script for a performance, a score made up of words and images: “Listen to an empty page” or “Crumple a sheet of paper” are open instructions for action. At the same time, Paradoxical Creatures is based on an intensive examination of the medium of books and the acoustic, haptic and material characteristics of paper. How can the ephemeral actions and sounds of a performance be captured on the pages of a book? How can the book function as an instrument, or as material for a performance? Which instructions should be transferred—which white spaces occupied? How does the opening of individual pages sound? How can space be created with a fold-out book cover? Wie klingt das Aufreissen der einzelnen Buchseiten? Paradoxical Creatures is a script for a performance and also an invitation for further performances, in which the sequence of actions can be varied and newly combined; in which one, several or many performers act; and in which the sounds can be mono- or polyphonic.