Interpreting The Conflict

Interpreting the Conflict is a two-part video sound art piece by Chanah Schnoll. In The Ideal Media, Schnoll uses the ironic juxtaposition of appropriated news media footage with children’s voice-over narration to convey a higher ideal of what news media should be. The honesty and innocence we associate with children highlights the notions of deception and bias that have come to define the 24-hour news machine, particularly in the case of the ongoing Middle Eastern crisis. In the companion piece Music Exploration, the artist asked children to interpret the meaning of words such as conflict, humanity, hate, truth, despair, and suffering–key elements of any conflict. Utilizing instruments such as guitar and piano, children explore these concepts musically to bring new, transcendent meaning to them beyond their literal definitions. Using music as a means of internalizing these universal concepts, the artist invites the listener to rediscover an empathetic world view and a renewed sense of the interconnectedness we all share.