AGGRESSIVE PILLOW TALK

AGGRESSIVE PILLOW TALK is a series created by The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, that explores the question “What is a sound removed from the specificity of human language?” It employs manipulated samples of poetry readings from the Woodberry Poetry Room at the Lamont Library at Harvard University. The samples are used in a variety of methods from the creation of virtual instruments and MIDI programmed events to the pitch collection for improvisational pieces. It exists in several forms including live performance, digital media, audio recordings, as well as an immersive sound installation.

POETRY
The series has inspired poetry by American poet and Harvard Radcliffe Fellow Roger Reeves, who’s poem featured alongside Elizabeth’s poetry room performance in her public Harvard Radcliffe Fellow talk in March 2022 as well as her performance on the Harvard Fromm Concert Players series in April 2022.

In future iterations of the project Elizabeth is interested in collaborating with more poets from diverse and varied backgrounds. If you would like to make contact with Elizabeth about a collaboration please use the contact form on this website to introduce yourself and your work.

A lot of people believe that nature is separate from humanity. But humans exist within nature, as do the things they create. So the Poetry Room’s archival recordings are snapshots of sonic ecosystems. And, in the archive itself, a sonic ecosystem is not just the area that you can hear—every sonic ecosystem is interconnected and is a full part of a larger cosmic sonic ecosystem. The field is not the physical space, it’s a different conception of what field means.
The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, Interview with Rebecca Araten for stylus.

AGGRESSIVE PILLOW TALK will be released as a series of visual albums in both digital and physical form via hybrid sculpture objects and prints beginning in 2023. For more information about this innovative distribution, please contact elizabeth@elizabethabaker.com.