A Year Without Summer (2020) Steven Warwick
A Year Without Summer
When someone makes a statement, one must ensure that it is accurately communicated.
This can be ensured by articulating the sentence slowly, clearly, and at an audible volume
Sometimes a sentence is wilfully obscured, this leads to its meaning being altered.
This wilfully altered sentence could take someone’s words out of context
This sentence out of context could make someone appear to say something they didn’t intended to say
Or worse, they could be accused of saying the opposite of what they first uttered.
This can be construed as a lie or falsehood
This can be construed as a defamatory comment towards an individual or group.
This sentence in term could itself be a legal allegation of defamation of character
Or as it alternatively known, character assassination.
This wilful twisting of a person’s words can create a new perception of character of the now accused, in a positive or negative light.
This new found light or reading of the perceived character could lead to them being ostracized or excommunicated from a group or community.
Without a chance to defend oneself against accusations, the sentence can further alienate the accused inside or outside of a community.
Language and words can be used to convince and influence others in an argument of rhetoric.
In an argument or debate it is important to listen to the other side even if one doesn’t agree with what is being said.
Hyperbolic statements should be contested by the asking of further questions to verify a claim of a consensus of truth.
Without access to a variety of sources, it is difficult to make an informed choice or opinion.
Gossip is a transmission, a currency and an abstraction of a perceived set of behaviour.
Steven Warwick performs a text at a public bench in Berlin which allows sound/speech to refract along the perimeter of the bench in a similar way to the Whispering Gallery at St Paul's Cathedral in London. The Text concerns the viral transmission of language and it's accompanying mutations as it travels.
Steven Warwick is an artist, writer and musician based in Berlin. His visual practice constructs situations with interweaving narratives across various media such as performance, installation, sculpture, plays and films. He also has recently collaborated on projects including the “Mezzanine” musical performance series choreographed with dancers, the artist duo Elevator to Mezzanine which has produced exhibitions, artist books and recently a Western musical titled "Performing America (Iconic America)" . The audiovisual performance- lecture series “Fear Indexing the X- Files” was issued as a book by Primary Information.
Warwick’s writing has appeared in Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, Frieze and Urbanomic. His visual work has been shown at KW Berlin; SMK, Copenhagen; Steirischer Herbst, Austria; The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Lars Friedrich, Berlin ; Cleopatra's, Brooklyn; Beach Office, Berlin ; Balice Hertling, New York. As a musician working under his own name and, previously, as "Heatsick", he produces and performs a hybrid live/ DJ set, releasing recordings with the club/experimental label PAN and has played at Berghain, Berlin; London Contemporary Music Festival; Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago; Issue Project Room, New York; and the Mutek and Unsound Festivals.