The Flesh of Language (2023)

HD Video with sound, The Flesh of Language, Runtime 16 Minutes (2023)

The Flesh of Language is research film which examines an expanded notion of archive in the age of ecological precarity. The work draws connections between three disparate subjects and looks at parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive’s 1960s investigation of anomalous voice-like sounds found on tape recordings, thought to be spirit messages and also known as electronic voice phenomena. The second is a 1985 experiment by zoologist Andrew Kitchener aimed at providing an anatomical explanation as to whether the extinct Irish Elk, Megaloceros Giganteus, used its antlers in battle, a critical question in evolutionary biology. The third involves inputs on the practicalities of media conservation.

The film uses alternative forms of knowledge, such as the choreographic, to establish crossovers between human and nonhuman bodies. It investigates an expanded notion of the archive focused on material (de)composition through themes of extinction, preservation and resurrection.

Production Credits:

Director: Amanda Rice

Movement Direction: Richard Pye

Movement Performers: Nina Davies, Ananya Jaidev, Lesya Tyminska, Richard Pye

Soundtrack: Graeme Arnfield

Cinematography: Felix Schmilinsky, Kevin Hughes, Jo Pester

Voiceover: Louise Cordery

Music: Alberto Garbelli (Ghibli)

Filmed on location: National Museum of Ireland Collections Resource Centre, Cardinal Broadcast, AV transfers UK, FOLD.

Special thanks to: Nigel Monaghan and Patrick Roycroft, National Musuem of Ireland, aemi, Miguel Amado, and Askeaton Contemporary Arts.

Funded by an Arts Council of Ireland Project Award

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