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