The Art of Lost Words, was call to create original work inspired by forgotten words. 41 designers, illustrators and photographers were invited to contribute to this interesting exhibition at the German Gymnasium near Saint Pancras. The sales from the works will go towards the National Literacy Trust.

video should appear below shortly (alternatively visit http://blip.tv/file/2822389)

I worked on the word “maieutic” and my response was a black and white video projection that emulates the Socratic method of teaching (maieutic). The oppositional discussion of the method is illustrated in motion and with use of shadow and light. The word TRUTH appears slowly, in a sequential and mildly random way. There is definitely a comic element* in the way the movement of the questions is mixed by the counters of shadow that create the 5 letters. I saw it as an invisible human hand that brings the “truth from within” using a series of 5 paradigmatic questions.

The sound is also designed to follow similar route. Five notes slowly compose a chord (C, E, B, G, C). These notes are tuned according to Pythagorean tuning**
There is a synthesised rotation effect to roughly follow the image.

*I would call that “aristophanic” (Aristophanes in his plays was satirising Socrates and his deeply sophisticated methods).
** wiki: “The method is an evolution of the technical methods of Orphism. They were based in the idea of reminiscence and the practice of Catharsis, especially developed by Pythagoras.