idea manufacturer, general director of the dream factory

Speechless: Reflections on Language

By Hüseyin Işık, Vienna 1997

• Do we share a common language on this earth?

• Are foreigners “language-impaired”?

• Does language have a color?

• How do people behave when they cannot articulate their problems?
(Aggression, withdrawal, suicide, artistic expression…)

• How do children learn their mother’s language?

• Preserving the voice: phonograph, records, tapes, CDs.

• Transmitting the voice: telephone, radio, TV.

• Amplifying the voice: loudspeakers, hearing aids, microphones.

• Do these tools carry the warmth, security, anger, sounds, or screams of the voice?

• Why do curious neighbors and state intelligence agencies want to eavesdrop on us?

• Why are voices suppressed in authoritarian regimes?

• Is this a societal language disability?

• Why can’t we hear flowers conversing?

• What language would deaf-mute people or babies, left on a deserted island, speak after five generations?

• Is every deaf person also mute?

• Is every mute person also deaf?

• Is death the final door to silence?

• Why do offended people refuse to speak to each other?

• Is this a form of punishment?

• Who does a person sentenced to life in solitary confinement talk to?

• Can walls speak or hear us?

• Who has listened to you the longest so far?

• Who have you listened to the longest?

• Have you ever tried to communicate with a deaf-mute person?

• Or with a “foreigner” you couldn’t understand?

• Have you faced problems in a foreign country without knowing the language?

• Have you ever started to stutter?

• Have you ever hurt someone with words?

• Have you ever lost your ability to speak?

• Are you reluctant to speak?

• Or has someone ever silenced you?

• Do you know the saying: “May the devil take that slanderous tongue”?

• Does the tongue have bones?

• Did you know that in a feudal society, a young girl forced into marriage remained silent until her death?

• Does language have a gender?

• Do sweet words coax snakes from their hiding places?

• Can you imagine how joyful life would be in a country with silent politicians?

Hüseyin Işık, Vienna 1997

WORK IN PROGRESS