Intralocutor

Materializing speech.
Intralocutor is an interactive installation that allows two participants to play with ways of visualizing their speech. A real-time video capture is made of the two and projected onto a wall behind them. The video has been altered so that all observers see is the silhouettes of the two. As they begin speaking, the speech of person A becomes visible, moves from person A’s mouth and interacts with person B’s silhouette. Depending on qualities of person A’s speech such as speed, volume, pitch and rhythm, her words might bounce off person B silhouette, or penetrate it, or simply stick to the “skin”. The appearance of the words also respond to the speech qualities; for instance, words said with stress appear elongated and shaky; words said with a heightened volume expand; words said with a quickened rhythm come out crowded together.