Tachypsychia is the sense of an altered perception of time, induced, among other things, by fear, causing events to appear slowed down or sped into a blur of motion.

“Nobody speaks to us. We have to phone home to find out what’s going on and our parents beg for us to leave and come home. The Kibbutzniks have vanished behind their steel shutters and we were told to stay in the bomb shelters. Some people still try to hitch a lift to Qiryat Shmona or anywhere when not working in the laundry or the kitchen or the hotel but hardly anyone drives by anymore. When they do they don’t like to stop. The only people left in the hotel are journalists and the cinema is closed. Even the nightclub went. People visited Kfar Blum from pretty far but it’s only the volunteers that turn up at meal times in the dining hall now. The shutters are down but the food is laid out and we help ourselves. Someone painted KFAR BOOM on the shelter wall and we talk and drink down there or watch TV but inevitably go outside to see what’s going on because it all feels so insane. One of the volunteers turned out to be an ex-soldier and one night he began to name the weaponry lighting up the night sky in front of us. He spoke about the tactical approach he thought the Israelis were using and made a guess of what was to come and the probable time it would end. It would be devastating, he said, but this couldn’t possibly last as it was just too expensive. Around 2am everything stopped on both sides as he said it would. The second time we were hit he left. The volunteers in the dining hall were laughing and joking when it suddenly shook violently and with such a strange sound that everyone looked about with a kind of excitement and terror. We ran out to find the damage, and picked out shrapnel from the new crater like a prize. The third time the Kibuttz was hit was the closest to the volunteer huts, and we’ve decided enough is enough. In a strange way it’s been one of the best experiences of my life.

Kibbutz Kfar Blum volunteer, February-April 1996


https://www.paulmichaelbrowne.com/tension

Tension (extract)

https://www.paulmichaelbrowne.com/an-accumulation-of-things

Play for a single voice on the subject of agoraphobia —
Nearing the end of a reunion after some time apart, 3 members of the Malough family watch illegally streamed sport. When a phone call takes the father temporarily out of the room, the brothers' awkward silence breaks down and they begin to speak with a greater honesty.

Transcribing a recorded conversation between my dad, brother and I down to every pause, idiosyncrasy and inflection, I re-enacted each individual speech verbatim, before superimposing the 3 separate recordings to re-form the conversation.

F1 field recordings: Heigh-hoo

An Accumulation Of Things

An Accumulation of Things

https://www.paulmichaelbrowne.com/what-is-life-for

What Is Life For?

Raw 1 hour field recording taken on a narrow boat along Regent's Canal next to Victoria Park, London.

Narrow Boat

https://www.paulmichaelbrowne.com
British artist drawing from memory, childhood and the everyday to explore time, human nature, conversation and the incessant internal dialogue using text, sound, photography and ordinary objects. Often deconstructing before reconstructing, observing, listening, recording, reinterpreting and reminding myself that I’m stood in the moment, so I must act accordingly.

Paul Michael Browne

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