Activist blogger Al Sharkawy about TH

Your imitation of the Abdel Karim post is very good, beside a few sounds that are anyway difficult to pronounce for non-native speakers. I think that it can have a positive effect for the freedom of expression, because very often the repetition of the same message in a different form will increase its strength and potential. In any case everyone should recognise that your imitations require a hard work from your side because you don’t speak Arabic and this aspect should contribute to draw attention to what is being transmitted.

The activist bloggers consider their blogs as an extension of the street and also the street as an extension of the virtual space of the internet. We use the blogs to organise the demonstrations, invite people to join in and then go and demonstrate, get arrested and report about that on the blogs. The popularity of my blog do have an effect on my own daily live. Sometimes people recognize me on the street and congratulate me for doing this. Most of the activists are bloggers and also friends. Our faces are well known by the state security, that’s why we cannot just meet and demonstrate peacefully. Our goal is to wake up the street to claim for a real freedom of expression. We believe that generally people feel solidary even if they are afraid to join us. The foreigners who come to witness what happens here are useful to us, because they report about these events and give us more visibility outside of Egypt.

Rami, a stranger who never travelled

Rami is a street poet.

You are a travelling stranger.
I am a stranger who never travelled.
Why is it like that ? I will anwser with a poem of mine.

Here's Tongue's Talking Head version of Rami's contribution. we thank him a lot for that!

Mozaar's comment about the TH

You know, it’s very funny because when I listen to your Talking Head imitations, it gives me the impression to hear the sound that you are receiving from the Arabic language. When I concentrate on the words I can more or less reconstruct the meaning, but when I listen to it as sound, then I see what you are actually hearing!
It makes me think about a piece of music that I brought with me from Zanzibar. (he plays it). They are singing in Swahili, an African language that has a lot of Arabic influences. To me it’s like if it where a song in Arabic. It sounds like Arabic without being it, like your work. What we are hearing is a tune from a CD I bought from a taxi driver, one of most beautiful music I ever heard. Zanzibar was a place where I felt very much in peace. The architecture, the streets, an island, a small piece of Africa which has fallen down in the sea, a Muslim population, speaking an African language, such a mix, a lot of Indians, Persians, British people… After their revolution in the 40’s, some socialist stuff, the mix of the culture was even obligatory…

Shaabi Talking Head: THE WEDDING

Air épais stase, poussière grasse s’introbruit, s’immobilise, plaque, grasse, croix lumineuses griffent, jaune, les murs se fendent gravassent sous les pneus, taxi bakchiché se renfile vrombe falot dans la frôle aveugle, feux, cartons, entre briques les camions, les corps s’accroupissent crachent relents d’huile, bord du nil, la kochary ventile souffle suinté, les foies d’agneau friture et racines roses, gaz, le grilleur tourne, bouteille pelée, enfoncée, le robinet de cuivre, jeans tendus haillent par en bas sur les orteils noirs, rue de six mètres en large, par degrés, s’enfonce ou c’est la route des berges, martelée, qui saille, ferrailles portes crevées, blocs de nuit, trois deux, basses, des formes appuyées, assises tournent le cou, là, tranchée, basses, des séries de néons, toile isolante les rubanne colorée, exposent la terre battue cinglante entre les premiers corps, plus loin plus dense, les toiles, tissus, traits, sourcils orbites, suspenses de crochets à clous aux parois : câbles, torons, cordes sucées, travers les fenêtres corps faces voûtées s’étagent, penchées, voilées se hèlent, les mains polissent sablent la glu illuminée, y squissent des youyous, rabrouent, les phalanges levées, estiment, reclassent se reprennent conjurent, se résignent, éclaircie d’air stagné, rematent, épellent les faces, corps basses, cela qui devient pont supérieur d’un flottoir, à sa proue une estrade où, basses, se tiennent juchés, serrés s’entregrappent shirts saisis, faces basses, les maîtres de cérémonie leurs platines un batteur, les enceintes flanquent tout au long le corridor en berceau, de la grille des fils en haut du saut-de-loup des paniers s’abaissent, rehissés, poupettent devant rideaux de fers des boutiques descendus, lie de vin bleu ciel violet ça face, corps autour de tables basses, leur guingois rouille, les nappes rouges, numéro brodé or, s’effilent se parent tiennent, cruches de fer-blanc choquent, tiennent, des hommes, assis occupés aux faces chanteurs corps, danseurs, basses en nappe, quoi les dessille, se répandent tchatcheurs, les nerfs, qu’on s’arrache qui méchuintent insufflés de la grappe des corps faces, cycles basses, s’y fondent saillissent membramment, épuisent généalogie des parents des hôtes des présents, y retissent l’énumération des vœux des frères des pères, de la sueur qui les tient face à corps, pied de l’estrade basses, nue de mousse de rasage, pétards à main tirés entre les murs flammes sprayées se lèchent, l’un roule papier journal, poignets bandés, l’autre toronne tuyau de pipe, combattent, pâmés, s’esquivent, tibias jetés, mains rebandées lames gracieuses se font banderilles, sandales talonnent, membres découplés, faces basses, là relais, yeux mi-clos un torse s’ébroue, trois, tous, clappent, tous clappent, saccadent, tambours raffalent ventres, impactent cuisses, les voix filament, pointent, strident, mais s’arrondent, faces corps basses, basses corps faces, se haranguent, brusques, lèvres charnues, se défient, favoris, clairs, se susshurlent, en amande, se provoquent, aisselles ouvertes, réponses, le flottoir clame basses faces, les nerfs font irruption du côté des femmes, à l’interstice la ronde des vieux, leur hauteur, qui hochent tacites, fument manualisent le cordon d’une chicha, ils ont fait distribuer le haschich les sodas, quelques bières, derrière, là sur une table en robe moulante, une mineure sans forme enchante des aïeules, ses brillants, ses bras reptent, son cul tressaille, oeil vide sourire fixé, ça déclame détonne, basses corps, à l’autre bout du couloir, happés ventral dans le pli des contretemps, ceux qui ne s’osent pas au-delà de la charnière des vieillards glotzent le direct pleins d’humeur, serpent, autre nerf, la caméra a droit à tout, couleurs rehaussées, la grappe fracturée des corps, prise au réticule d’usages, s’y peut voir une, suspendue, basses, corps basses, mais faces, corps basses, basses corps faces, flottoir irradié maintenant, basses corps basses appuyées au quart-de-tour, texteurs membrammés, flûtes faces ondulent, basses corps faces, corps faces, stridences, garçon juché sur les épaules d’un camarade, celui-ci sa tête s’est faite ventre, ses doigts claquent, celui-là ses yeux épaules avant-bras ongles caressent hument les nappes basses le poison flûte, la fièvre des texteurs s’empire, sont peaux, qui appellent, sont sifflés, qui aiguillent, l’allure des basses se tend, qui s’éclipsent, apparaissent, pour s’adresser à l’un qui lui attrape le lobe, fait son souhait, retchatché filé, versé au pot à la pâte corps basses, et s’enfuir que d’autres rondes les ravissent, ventres grappe corps faces, flottoir basses, le marié est borgne, centre-grappe, sa femme invisible.

Abdul's comment on Talking Heads

Considering your blog, I think it’s a good idea to give people the possibility to make their own mix of the different sounds of Cairo. Hearing your speech imitations I only recognize some words. In the contrary to Ash's opinion, I think that you were right to use the file which speaks about this Arabic man who loves Swedish blond girls because that’s true that a lot of men here think about sexual things and about making love with blond girls.
There is something beautifull in this idea that I can’t express. I think you mean to transfer the human beeing’s feelings. Like if someone would like to talk to the others, to communicate. During this process you move to the position of the other and the other takes your position, it’s a kind of exchange of positions… the great idea : How to accept the other ? How to adapt to the other ? this is a good starting point. The sentences that you are repeating are almost all incorrect, but what matters is the feeling, you can feel some words that I say and that touches you, so this is perfect. My only objection is why did you choose Teeth and Tongue ? To me those words mean the language itself.

Egyptian blogosphere + Kareem + TH

The Cairo Talking Heads Project has been inspired by the Egyptian blogosphere from its very beginning. Many of the activist bloggers are reporting about the corrupt political system and sometimes get arrested and beaten during demonstrations.
Karim Amar is an Egyptian blogger who has been arrested and sentenced to four years of jail because of his critical writings and position.
This is a scandalous case of repression here in Egypt, among 1000.
Everybody should sign the petition.
To be aware of the complexity of the affair and learn more about the Egyptian activists' blogosphere, check the following links:

www.freekareem.org
www.sandmonkey.org
www.omraneya.net
www.manalaa.net
http://arabist.net

Accordingly to the Talking Head principle here is our contribution.This a sample of the post that Kareem published on the 23th October 2005 and that led him into jail. (see the english translation of karim's whole post HERE)

Ash about CTH & freedom of speech

I’m quite sure that Teeth & Tongue won’t have any problem by repeating activists’ statements. But to build the conditions through which one could spread out insults against religion, religious people or against the government may be dangerous. If they want to be asking for trouble with you, they will do. Generally the amount of reasons to sue you is so wide and at the same time so intransparent that you never know. Moreover the Egyptian society is not used to surf on the web but for searching for pornography, chats or contacts with girls. The few web users interested in political issues are the activists. Regarding the blogosphere the government wanted to make a case of Kareem, because in its perspective an increasing number of activists were going too far on the web. Well-educated, bourgeois are leading this growing but still little scene that could be able with the help of the capital to change the political order. The point with Kareem is that he has been assuming his words at the court. It would have been very easy to avoid the condemnation, because one hardly establish the responsibility of a web-based statement. If Teeth & Tongue now ask me if with their audioblog they add a web-based tool in favour of freedom of speech, I would say no. It’s a kind of joke. They make abstraction out of serious things, perhaps in order to show the beauty of the language, but this trick remains an ironical one. Of course it’s a way to say things indirectly and people love it. It reminds me of a show we have here with this guy who can perfectly imitate Sadat’s voice while saying bad things about Israel. People laugh about it but however it still transmits a clear political message. One may consider it as a hint to the work of the bloggers, if not as a contribution. But now if they want me to read a Kareem’s text in order to repeat it afterwards, I’ll accept. No problem. I hope I would then become a refugee in their country.

Ash's comment about our imitation of his poem & the Talking Heads in general

(see previous post with our performance of his poem HERE)

Teeth caught the rhythm but not really the letters or the phonemes. He only touched the words through rhythm. He plays the real game, because the whole Arabic poetry has been written in this rhythm that is a meter, a timeline that is not related to the syntax. Although the modern poets use western rhythms now, only a few like me still write in the old one. So, one can say that he caught the rhythm in my voice, considering it as music, as a row of musical units or pieces. Altogether my poetry becomes abstract, so that I only understand 50 percents of the word-centred meaning.
Tongue concentrated more on the letters. They are more precise. His pronunciation is better. He caught the units of the words, the contours of which become here sharper, as if he knew them. Tongue really imitated my voice. I understand more than 70 percents, except regarding some letters that are particularly difficult to pronounce and that he should work on, if he wanted to learn the language. The combinations of letters reach very deeply into the language, they are also hard to be seized. But sometimes Tongue did touch them and in that case his voice relied on the very background of this text that is the Koran and its particular combinations and formulas. They are rare, beautiful and I was keen on imitating it, especially in that sentence which says, “when the monster sweeps the suns from the café of my blood” [tahshufushumuseh].

First to my surprise I found it clever, but now I see how sensitive this idea can be, because the emotion I’ve put into this poetry has moved into the voice of someone who ignores my mother tongue. It’s amazing how the spoken language keeps the feeling, even transferred through their blind performance. Although they can’t speak Arabic some word stay understandable and moreover the emotion. I don’t know how they managed to transmit my expression, not only my words but also my voice with both my particular way to pronounce phonemes and my rhythm. Of course something remains lost, which is a certain singular belonging to a culture, as a native speaker. So it’s neither the same profound sadness nor the same shallow I spoke out, but what I can hear here is my own expression that has been abstracted.

Ash's contribution

After having severely critized the quality of our arabic sound sources, here's Ash's contribution. he said it's a poem. we have no idea what it means, but did our best to reproduce it. I still can feel the circonvolutions of his words in my mouth.

tongue's version


teeth's version

Explaining your silence: first comment by Ash, who we met in Cairo

I will tell you my opinion. The arabic is not clear. The one who is reading this arabic didn’t know arabic. He read latin letters but the text is arabic, so he writed in latin and he read it. That means the word itself is not clear and his prononciation of the letters is not good and he didn’t know what is the difference between this word and the other word, he didn’t stop with the ending of the word. Sometimes I understand 3-4 words, one word, and the rest I can’t understand it and sometimes I think that he is speaking in french or english. I understand 30 % of the words. He try to telling poetry, this I understand but the rest of the poetry is not clear.
The idea is to produce abstract group voices but sometimes I recognise that a voice is coming front and the rest is away. It remind me of Beethoven. Beethoven he is very complicated composer because he has this idea… you know how to walk, if you would like to walk you have to stand once and then a step further and you have to stand and the other…this back and forward work remind me of the human being brain, you can’t think many things in one time. He knows that so you have focus in one idea and the rest is backround. Beethoven he has four melodies in one time, one time he has one melody in front and the rest is in background but it all work together and then it moves to the second bar and third bar and fourth bar and than again and again. It’s allways Beethoven work in this way. This work is remind me of that because sometimes I have a voice coming and the other is a bit lower and then it’s back and then another one is coming, another one is coming, but group of voices you can’t recognise the mistakes and you didn’t recognise one text but I recognise that this text is really have the common idea of any tourist about Egypt and about Arab people that they like the blong girls and they speak about the fighting and violence and old history… first I’m asking myself when I hear something like that, something like, sorry to say it, like kind of racism like we put in a shelf that Arabs they like blond girls, violence and they are voices, very hard voices for fighting and violence. This three things is like kind of stereotypes. You going to prove to the europeans that they have right to judge and to put these people in that shelf that they have sex hunger and violence. What you would like to do with that ? It’s confusing you know. Especially when you speak about Saladin. Saladin is symbol for the Europeans that he is really violence and killed a lot of christian because of the crusades war. When you have this symbol it’s not a name it’s have history. This is what I thought that you’d like to bring me with this text.

New vocal contribution by teeth

here's a talking head contribution by teeth who found the source file randomly on the web. please leave a comment...or send us an audio file with our new RECORDER on the right.

Talking head in arabic - 1st try !

Here's my first try to appropriate a fragment of arabic language through audition & repetition. I found that randomly on the web and have only a vague idea of what it could mean (you can view the source HERE). i did my best and rehearsed a lot to achieve this personal version of it. i had to slow down the original file so that i can repeat it.
rather than discussing the meaning of it, i'd like to know if people can understand anything, recognise elements of their language and contribute by sending us their own soundfiles so that we can repeat it.

the same file, back to original speed. ... any comment ?

Whose dream?

A Dream : knowing a foreign language without understanding it : to perceive the Difference in it, without this Difference being ever caught up and flattened by the superficial sociality of language, by communication or habit… to learn the systematic of unseizability ; to resolve our reality under the influence of another organisation, another syntax ; to discover unheard positions of the subject in its expression… in other words to descend in the untranslatable and feel its vibration… until the whole Occident inside us starts to waver and together with it the right of the father tongue, this language that we inherited from our fathers and which makes us again the fathers and owners of a culture, which History metamorphoses into nature.

This was Roland Barthes' fantasma of giving the Others a place, as he was encountering Japan.

Another Roland, tells you an epic song of the 11th century, explodes his brain while blowing in his horn as he encountered the Others he would only fear.

Now you have teeth and tongue. What the hell can they do? They would let the Others blow through them, as a first step. A new epos ?