THE COCONUT EFFECT
2020
Digital film and sound, 8:15 mins
(please wear headphones to experience this film)
The Coconut Effect is a short digital film that uses binaural sound, ASMR, Foley performances and text captions to create sensory narratives around Trinidadian food and cultural memory. The narrator, who takes us on a journey through waking and dream states, lulls us into a series of experiences that meander between two worlds, both inside and outside of the tropics, while navigating a Caribbean authenticity that is continuously called into question. We are introduced to the failures and awkwardness of a subject who occupies a space between belonging and not belonging. The film’s soundtrack is created entirely by manual manipulation, using only imported Trinidadian food products as props. These materials (either fresh, processed, or artificial) are explored for their acoustic qualities as a way to tap into their narrative capacities. This film looks to Caribbean food products themselves to be the storytellers of cross-cultural experiences in the sounds they hold.
Commissioned by the Koffler Centre of the Arts for the Koffler.Digital exhibition "A Matter of Taste" curated by Letticia Cosbert Miller. This film has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Originals Initiative.