Sound Needs Medium to Travel

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Sound Needs Medium to Travel is a speculative project discussing the topic of speech control in some countries through sensitive word filters on the internet. The story envisions a future in which people will need to take their home voice assistants to government offices for “update”. The voice assistant will be moved out of its original container and into a uniform, clear glass enclosure. The exhaust port at the bottom of the glass enclosure is used to connect to a new socket next to the power socket in the home. Whenever people mention certain words to the voice assistant, the air inside the glass enclosure will be pulled out into a vacuum. Without the medium, there is no sound.

Using the metaphor of the teaching apparatus of a school physics class, this project tries to ask how this kind of instrument will affect our behavior and decisions. Can we be informed about which words we should not say and which words we can still say now?