This piece was made for an experimental video made by myself which carries the same title.

Between The Bell For Waking And The Bell For Sleep

Between The Bell For Waking And The Bell For Sleep (2013)

The vocoded speech in this piece, which sounds semi-unintelligible, is in actuality a part of the widely known public speech called “I Have a Dream” by the American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. who is also remembered for his strictly non-violent methods.

Interspersed between the ominous presence throughout the piece, there also lies indications of hope and warmth.That and other juxtapositions of distinct aural features in the context of intelligibility, alludes to the matter that although the abstract relationship between “non-violence” and “violence” is black and white, the reality behind human violence is a much more cloudier issue. The terms “non-violence” and “violence” can easily slip from categories of political action to moral claims. Likewise, another way to demoralize a society is to label the act of “vandalizing” as “violence”. The sound of spray paint interweaved in the piece signifies graffiti or “vandalism”, which more often than not is characterized by a rhetoric of resistance or political, social, and economic change; while rejecting the state’s attempts to create governable entities.

A modified, longer version of this piece has been played in a loop at Dastan: Outside's Electric Room in Tehran, during Foozhan Xajeh’s show titled “My Magic Vandalism”, from April 20 to 25, 2018.

Maral Kazemi

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