The hard of hearing collective group expressed many concerns they’ve had about being in certain social circumstances. Problems they encountered were talking on the telephone, lack of loop systems, lack of training in organizations involving hearing impairments. hearing tests through glass, super markets, restaurants, and parties. We wanted to combine the societal issues they face with wider social issues. `the common theme was communicating in large social settings, this led to the idea of having a dinner party.
We spent 2 group meetings developing this idea. What emerged was “Defragmentieriung”. This is german for defragmentation. As a group we decided on codes of practice to be observed at this dinner party. All those participating in the live performance could only communicate through a chat room, while at a dinner party. Throughout the piece certain aspects of the piece were interrupted by outside elements causing the piece to go even further. This live installation was performed on Tuesday, April 27th at the 474 m2 exhibition space.
Three courses occurred, as 8 people were ushered to the table to partake in the piece. During their interactions at the table, the remaining audience observed the dialogue by watching the Skype conversation that was projected onto a wall. Disjointed conversations about communication were integrated into the dialogue by people from the hard of hearing group who were placed at the table.
In our piece two ideas are at the forefront. The issues of the hard of hearing are tied with the issues of our voluntarily impotent society.
