Hearing Voices
Hearing Voices is a compelling and adventurous exploration of languages on the verge of extinction.
Best Documentary: Silver2005 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition2005 / John Wynne / Between the Ears, BBC Radio 3, UK
Hearing Voices is a compelling and adventurous exploration of languages on the verge of extinction.
This "composed documentary" moves seamlessly between documentary and abstraction, language and music, weaving together interviews, field recordings, and Wynne's own music made from these materials. Every sound in this half-hour piece, which features recordings of various click-language speakers from the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, is derived from the Khoisan subjects and their environment.
Hearing Voices won the Best Documentary: Silver Award in the 2005 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. The story first aired on Between the Ears, BBC Radio 3, in 2004.
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John Wynne has a PhD in Sound Art. His often research-intensive work includes "composed documentaries" for radio and installations for galleries and museums.