Listen to Tympanic here

Tympanic – a maxi-sensory audio tour. An intimate audio tour for one person, originally presented at the National Review of Live Art. Essentially a satirical work, the piece draws heavily on Kristeva's notions of the abject body and the truism of live artists focusing on their own physical body. The notion of ‘confessional’ life-writing and the physical body are drawn together through use of Thomas Couser's theories that biomedical ethics can be applied to performance-making. This marriage of the biomedical and the performative is summed up in the piece's title, which references the tympanic membrane in the inner ear. The content of the 'tour' is a series of supposedly true confessional stories where a pompous and self-aggrandising narrator (Leddy's voice) recounts stories of smash-hit shows and of sexual conquests. As these anecdotes develop we hear descriptions of shows which are more and more derivative and clichéd.

Along the way self-help books and 'lifestyle' gurus are also lampooned as the narrator offers advice on where to get casual sex as well as some scatological nutrition tips that would Dr. Gillian McKeith choke on her brown rice. A very ambiguous relationship between fact and fiction is established. Along with these things comes a questioning of the artist's relationship with and supposed 'authority' over the viewer. The piece draws into question the notion of 'confessional' performance art, the ethics of the tabloid 'kiss and tell' exposé and the veracity of any film that claims to be 'based on a true story.'

Written and performed by David Leddy

Recorded by Pippa Murphy

Commissioned for National Review of Live Art

The Arches, Glasgow, February 2005

Later shown at:

International PARIP Conference, Leeds, UK (July 2005)

Gazona De Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Oct 2006)

Present Tense, Boston, USA (Dec 2006)

Listen to Tympanic here