Voyage to the Center of the Phone Lines
1993, 55 minutes
Voyage's structure is simple. Coastal landscape footage
and spectacular sunsets are combined with phone conversations recorded
from a scanner that picks up cordless phone frequencies.
The result is a touching reflection on the tawdry
but tender world of human affairs. Although Voyage is non-narrative,
Auder chose to begin the work with a lengthy excerpt of conversation
between two devout Christians. This establishes the work's overarching
conceptual tone.
The discrepancy between image and sound is analogous
to that between heaven and earth. Set within the context of paradise
lost, the chatter comes across as the displaced prayers of mortals.
(If God is listening, one can only hope she is forgiving of New York
accents.)
The degrees of humor, despair and desperation vary,
lending Voyage a range of moods. Irony and omniscience, however, are
dispelled by the fact that to listen is to sympathize at which point
it becomes clear that this is no judgment seat, it's a mirror.