Stories

Richard Burgess

Mixed media

2009

The exchange and presentation of stories is a form of dialogue. Respect results from understanding, understanding comes from knowing, know that these are real stories about the real lives of real people.

Oral Contours

Collaborators

Sarah Soriano & Shabnam Khoshdel

Animation & Sound

2010

Oral Contours is an animation that slowly reacts to a man telling his life story. He begins telling us about playing games as a young boy, then later meeting his wife, and eventually working in Tehran. I found that his voice carried the kernel of his personality and his life.

Ripples of earth-tone shapes reflect the scratchy yet soothing characteristics of his voice and the layers of history he unfolds orally. As his voice traveled such a great distance, passing through his throat and eventually into my ears, the imagery of overlapping tissue resembles growth as I imagined his voice flowing smoothly and organically through the air intersecting with the lives of others.