Obduktion
"Obduktion" is an audio performance piece by Elisabeth Schimana, adapted for V2_ in 2000.
Obduktion
Obduktion is a performance about the material (also useable) and acoustic characteristics of the human corpse. There is nothing left, only a piece of lifeless matter, Schimana said about her experiences in a dissection room in a hospital. There, she taped the sounds of dissections and other background noises that depict the atmosphere of the action and the place. Her editing method of the sound resembles the dissection procedure: the lifeless corpse is taken apart, to its separate parts; organs are separated from circulation functions, so that every single part can be observed as an autonomous object. Similarly, Schimana extracts specific acoustical phenomena; in this piece, separate sound sequences can be distinguished: flowing water, breaking bones, voices, sawing... Texts about death are read aloud.
