Can You Hear Me?

This work explored our mutual interest in sound, listening and communication in public space, and the artistic potential in these elements. Using two tin cans and a long string that connected them, as a simple listening device, we transmitted messages across vast space to anonymous individuals. By separately moving through a space, but being connected by the string, we were able to separately approach individuals and allow them to hear the other’s message conveyed via the tin cans. Our messages were both intimate and arbitrary, and were expressed to an anonymous individual identified by one another.

We performed this action in Park Station, the central Bus and train terminal in Johannesburg. The only control artists had over the receiver of the dispatch was through the medium of their fellow artist. There had to be an element of trust in each other, to transport the listening instrument to the anonymous receiver, and decide who should hear the transmission.