CHRISTOPH KELLER Christoph Keller, Introduction | Page 44

VERBAL/NONVERBAL, 2010
The video Verbal/Nonverbal shows a number of test subjects against a neutral, white background,
either individually or in pairs, in the context of an experimental test protocol. Each subject seats him
or herself in an office chair, breathes deeply, concentrates, each appearing somewhat nervous.
Each then places a balloon to his or her lips and breathes into it; the balloon then expands and
contracts with each inhalation and exhalation. Before long, something curious occurs: their faces
relax noticeably. Several subjects begin laughing aloud. A few attempt to repress these outbursts of
hilarity. Others appear mentally absent. Still others attempt to articulate their experiences verbally.
The intensity of these emotional responses careens out of control, their hilarity is irrepressible. Their
laughter is infectious, yet one observes that an element must be present which somehow enhances
the potential for affect and empathy. For a moment, all of the lightness of the world seems no further
away than a balloon—and yet remains nonetheless evanescent.
The video piece Verbal/Nonverbal alludes to the construction and deconstruction of the self. And
yet its images do not retreat toward mental states or introspection, but instead foreground a political-
ly legible motif in the context of a collective autoexperiment which involves the overcoming of the self
and its construction of the world.
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