Surface Tension

Surface Tension is a work exploring David Foster Wallace’s first novel "The Broom of the System". The score consists of a re-arrangement of quotes describing the stories’ female protagonist Lenore Beadsman. Through contradicting the lascivious descriptions of her body with the more “theoretical” reflections on the relation between language and subjectivity, aspects of a “literal corporeality” are explored, especially regarding the function allotted to femininity. The score’s 2 voices overlap, intertwine or synchronize, staging somehow a failing conversation. It is embedded in an installation setting that plays with the tactility of sound – the latex panels slightly move within space, giving the impression of breathing or reacting to the soundwaves’ touch.

2-channel audio installation, latex, hooks, nylon | 2018