new work: stuttering

I'm currently seeking critical feedback, discussion and exhibition venues
(including festivals) on/for my new interactive installation, stuttering.
Details are below; video and images online at
http://nathanielstern.com/gallery/stuttering.html Any discussion much
appreciated; thanks in advance,

nathaniel
http://nathanielstern.com

stuttering, 2003

According George Lakoff, author of Philosophy In The Flesh, human
communication is always already mediated. Our emotions, our past and the
memories it carries, cannot be separated from it. He says, "The mind is
inherently embodied." Because of our flesh, our multi-sensory perception,
and our personal experiences, our communications convey much more than
transparent information.

stuttering proposes a space which accents how we effect, and are affected
by, conversation and comprehension. It suggests that stillness and
stumbling play a role in the un/realized potentials of memory and
storytelling.

Newsprint is scattered about the floor, containing quotes and passages about
stutterers, situations in which stuttering, in its broadest sense, is
common, and suggestions of when and where we should "make stutters," in
order to break "seamless" communication. Each viewer in the space triggers
a large-scale interactive art object projected on the wall in front them.
This projection is broken into a Mondrian-like mirror, where each
sub-section, initialized by body-tracking software, animates one of the
floor-found quotes; every animation is accompanied by an audio recitation of
its text.

stuttering thus creates a tense environment through its inescapable barrage
of stuttering sound and visual stuttering: noise. Only by lessening their
participation will the information explosion slow into an understandable
text for the viewer. The piece asks them not to interact, but merely to
listen. Their minimal movements, and the phrases they trigger, literally
create new meaning.

The spaces between speaking and listening, between language and the body,
add to the complex experience of communication. stuttering is not displaying
data, but rather, pushing us to explore these practices of speaking and
listening. It suggests that communication comes to and from us, in ways
that even we do not fully comprehend.