The cry of the Inanimate

Yesterday while pottering around the kitchen,I absentmindedly banged the refrigerator door. A cry went off, I was startled and looked in the direction of the refrigerator , had it spoken up? I noticed a small bowl, that had been accidentally kept near the door of the refrigerator. It had been hit by my callous banging of the door. But what was the sound about? Like that of a cry, of someone in agony..It made me think. It took us humans a long time to imagine and understand that animals and living beings other than themselves have language and are capable of understanding and depth( Some still haven't understood that)..if so, are we mistaken in assuming that non living things don't feel?

I took up the bowl in my hand and stroked it a while, nothing happened, but I felt good. If I wasn't rambling here, and had spoken of this to someone else, people would have stared at me. But hey didn't we stare at those who said the earth was round? We've all heard of course of plants responding to music, even having preferences in music( Soft music apparently soothes them). Well then why can't a different dimension be given to an inanimate object, by attuning it to music..a force of life, perhaps in the hopes that one day they shall show some kind of response, or better still, we shall respond to how they feel?

I am reminded of Susan Philipsz, who works with sound installations. Philips was awarded the Turner prize for her sound installation in Glasgow. Recordings of Philipsz singing three slightly different versions of a Scottish lament over the river Clyde in her hometown, Glasgow, was installed beneath each of the three bridges within the city – the George V Bridge, the mighty Caledonian Railway Bridge and Glasgow Bridge. Philipsz is perhaps the first person in the history of the award to have worked on bestowing feeling to something you cannot see or touch. But more than that, her idea, of bestowing the emotion of her song, onto the bridge and the river flowing below, is stupendous.





In a strange way I am reminded of music being played in funerals. Why do we do it? Especially when there is no authentic proof that can substantiate any sense of feeling associated with the dead being able to hear the music, or even find peace on it. Strangely enough, different religions bestow different music to their dead, some even bestow laughter, in the hope and belief that that soul will be in peace.If such is the case, maybe we can sometime bestow emotions and language to inanimate objects too.

( Video courtesy Youtube)