THE GAME OF LISTENING

Rules of the game :

In the game of listening one of the two players dictates what to draw little by little while the other draws. What’s interesting about this game is that we come to a collective work for two, in a different way than in the drawings signed Mordysabbath. The one who tells the story sees her story drawn on the paper in a way that is quite different from what she imagines and the one who draws, has a feeling of lightness, because he no longer thinks about the coherence of what he draws, and because he no longer has to deal with the meaning of what he draws.

Ody Saban & Thomas Mordant, Paris, 2000

September 9, 2012 – notes on different ways to play the listening game:

A. Three ways of proceeding for the speaker.

1. Automatism : chaining of words in the least controlled manner possible.

2. Semi automatism, that is to say, here, automatism going towards a distinct visual representation (for example a table that the one who speaks can represent in a dreamlike way).

3. Objective to follow by sight the drawing of the other while trying implicitly or explicitly to advise, to influence, to water generously and intensively their unquenchable thirst for suggestion.

B. Three ways of proceeding (which can be combined) among others for the person who draws.

1. Capture some twirling imagery of the speaker.

2. Draw as freely as possible while playing the game, that is to say by listening attentively to what the other is saying and thus being captive of the wisps of this foreign imagination.

3. Really trying to represent everything that the other says or at least as much as possible and with the greatest fidelity possible despite the immense polysemy of the term fidelity.

2000. Listening game I 10.5×19.5cm. Done in ten minutes. Signed Ody Saban and Thomas Mordant. Chinese ink on paper.

2000. Listening Game II, 22 October. 23x30cm. Signed Ody Saban and Thomas Mordant. Chinese ink on paper.

2012. Listening Game III, 12 August. 24x 32cm. Signed Ody Saban and Thomas Mordant. Chinese ink on paper.

2012. Listening Game IV, 9 September. 24x 32cm. Signed Ody Saban and Thomas Mordant. Chinese ink on paper.

2012. Listening Game V, 19 September. 24x 32cm. Signed Ody Saban and Thomas Mordant. Chinese ink on paper.