A performance installation, How we Listen, investigates the construction of conversation and surprise using interviews.
Prior to the 12 hour performance at the Historic Moore Theatre in downtown Seattle, Curry & Dillon conduct recorded interviews asking individuals: “What do you need”? and “What makes you special”? These recorded responses and interview questions are used for their performance and installation situated in 3 dressing rooms, located – one on each floor of the 3 story building.
The ground floor dressing room contains six prerecorded, looped interviews at listening stations located throughout the room.
The second story dressing room space contains public interviews as performance. Each performance interview is photo documented, printed taped to the walls. As the evening progresses the accumulated photographs layer over each other representing the passage of time, participants and their stories.
The third story dressing room contains 50 portable radios broadcasting the in progress live interviews conducted in room 2, via pirated radio signals.
As the audience climbs the stairwell stopping at each dressing room, first to listen, second to engage in performance, and finally to hear others, the experience of ascending the stairs becomes an experience of eavesdropping, direct engagement, and exposure.
Laura Curry 