Repeat After Me: I Have No Words from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Photographs taken by Stephen Takacs

 

Thinking about the improbability of language. It is truly amazing to me that we have language, one of the defining characteristics of human beings. The idea that we can recognize and collect sounds, compile them to make words, place meaning to those words and put them in an order to make sentences, producing even greater meaning. Not to mention the many different languages that have evolved. Repeat After Me: I Have No Words provides a system that enacts the complex development of language, spoken and heard. Only through the gathering and repeating of the sounds in the headphones would the language be assembled and the message be heard. Although it is probable that this could happen, given that everything is in place for it to work, the chance of it happening is slim, as it requires an investment and cooperation. Through the phrase “I have no words” it also seeks to explore those times when language fails us.