Sound

Fall 2007

"Sound Portrait: Jessica Lynch"

duration: 13 minutes, no images, sound

Play audio excerpts:

Excerpt #1 (Beginning): (19.3 MB)

Excerpt #2 (Ending): (7.9 MB)

Voice actors:

On March 23, 2003, the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed near the town of Nasiriyah, Iraq. Eleven soldiers were killed and five were captured by Iraqi soldiers as prisoners. Among the POWs was Pfc. Jessica Lynch from Palestine, West Virginia. The March 23rd incident quickly became a narrative manufactured by the Pentagon, and Jessica Lynch immediately took center stage. Lynch’s ordeal and rescue mission were used to deflect negative attention away from the war. Her story ultimately extended beyond her persona to engage the nation in discussions of gender, race, war, and patriotism.

The piece is a fictional soundscape of Jessica Lynch’s memory. Within this manufactured landscape, Jessica recounts the March 23rd incident while being pursued by an anonymous male soldier. As Jessica reveals more facts from her personal memory, the pursuit becomes more aggressive. When I first learned of the story, I was fascinated by the gendered power dynamics between Jessica Lynch and the masculine government; and I wanted to build a narrative that symbolically reflected this relationship. The soundscape is designed to sound artificial, similar to a theater façade. It is as if at any moment one can poke a hole in the landscape and the entire backdrop would crumble. The narrative is constructed to be as tightly controlled as the one fabricated by the government. However there are occasionally brief moments of collapse within the piece that allow the listener to momentarily question the reality of the narrative.

 

 

Sound Installation

(Work in progress)

duration: 3 minutes and 28 seconds each, no images, sound

5 to 10 speakers playing simultaneously depending on room size

(Click on thumbnails for larger view)

Voice actors:

These small speakers are intended to be hidden around a room, although the installation is not site specific. The speakers emit different stories, and all the voices talk about the March 23rd incident from different points of view.

The stories are narrated from various perceptions and different points in time. The March 23rd incident is recounted from both observational and participatory points of view as well past, present, and future tense. Each description contains its own theory of what happened that day. I was also interested in how memory is accessed, and narrating both interior and exterior voices of the incident.

Here are some excerpts:

Jessica’s deja-vu experience:


I see sand everywhere, for miles and miles, I know this place, but I’ve never been here before. Maybe I saw it in a dream or in a movie or something. I don’t know why but I have this overwhelming feeling of knowing what’s going to happen next. It’s kind of eerie . . . I’m going to walk through the town. Shit, (sigh) my feet keeps sinking into the red clay. If I want to run away, I can’t. (Sniffs) It smells like burning flesh. It’s really quiet, too quiet almost. Wait, I hear gunfire and voices over there.

An Iraqi civilian’s observations:

There was shooting everywhere. I saw vehicles crashing into each other and many accidents. Screaming, crash sounds, chaos everywhere. I heard yelling and English from far off. My daughter was with me and she was very scared, so I immediately went back into my house . . .

Psychic:

Ok, I’m holding strands of her blonde hair. I’m going to try to get a picture in my head and find out what happened to her. Usually the person will enter my body and show me what they want me to see. All right, I’m seeing her at a great distance. She has blue eyes, beautiful white skin, small petite body. I’m surprised at how young she is, maybe 18 or 19? There’s something fragile about her . . .

Jessica’s dream:

Jessica: I had a dream within a dream last night.
Male: Tell me about it.
Jessica: I was tied up in a bed naked. My hands were above my head with my wrists tied together. I couldn’t move no matter how much I tried.
Male: Were you kidnapped?
Jessica: I don’t know . . . but the entire time I knew something bad was about to happen. I kept hearing this voice on a loud speaker, but it seemed really far away. (Bush’s voice heard from a distance)
Sometimes I felt an invisible hand running all over my body, touching me everywhere. Someone was trying to force his tongue into my mouth.
Male: You know you’re everybody’s fantasy, I just want to put my hand on your breast, run my hand through your beautiful hair, touch your soft thighs . . .

Séance:


Medium: All right. Here’s a question Jessica. If you could bring anyone from history back to life, who would it be?
Jessica: It would be my best friend Lori Piestewa. I want to speak to her more than anything else in the world.
Medium: I’m going to try to channel her spirit. Do you have anything of hers?
Jessica: Yes, I brought a picture of her
Medium: I’m getting closer to her, just a few more moments (voice turns into radio transmission of Lori’s voice) Jessica, can you hear me?