Yann Novak

The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment and philosophical paradox that raises questions about personal identity and the nature of change. The legend of Theseus describes how he rescues the children of Athens from King Minos’ minotaur. In commemoration, Athenians began a pilgrimage to honor his victory, taking the ship of Theseus and sailing it from Athens to Delos. It was with this tradition that a philosophical paradox about the historic ship was raised: As the ship was repaired, piece by piece, until it was no longer composed of any original parts, at what point could the ship no longer be considered the same entity?

The Voice of Theseus seeks to create a similar paradox informed by the artists perceptual difference: tinnitus, partial color blindness and dyslexia. The piece poses the question: how much can ones experience of reality diverge from others, through perceptual differences like these, and still be a shared experience? 

To achieve this, the sonic foundation of the piece is vocal recordings from vocalists Dorian Wood and G. Brenner. These recordings are manipulated to varying degrees throughout the piece in order to blur the line of recognizability. The performance further complicates this line by inviting a local vocalist (from the location its being performed) to perform some of the vocal parts. Their contributions subverts the one-to-one relationship of sound and visuals that is often present in audiovisual performances of this nature.

There’s no real way to know how great the disparity is between our observational experiences and another’s, and no clear limit of how many pieces of our shared reality can be removed before it stops being just that.