The Perfect Sound (2009) is a single-channel video work which explores and investigates notions of producing the ‘perfect sound’ within the English spoken language. The fact that we each have a unique sound and voice whilst sharing the same vocal apparatus intrigues the artist who worked with the relatively recent phenomenon of ‘accent removal’ to extract the ‘foreignness’ within a subject’s accent. The video shows the subject repeating vocal exercises with a speech therapist which demonstrates the unique qualities of his accent that are the residual traces of his spoken heritage. The subsequent words take on an abstract and musical quality with their continued repetition rendering them meaningless, transforming the word into a sound. Uttering a word becomes like striking a note on the piano trying to perform a composition. Ultimately with the ‘Perfect Sound’ Zdjelar’s work asks where is an accent and investigates the notion of acoustic tolerance which is being tested between a speech therapist and his client.
