Before | After Swearing…

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Full title: Before swearing | After swearing for 56s in French | After swearing for 60s in English | After swearing for 60s in Hebrew and Arabic.

Some field notes:

a) When I was a kid, my older sister and I, in an attempt to stop swearing, would take minute-long swearing binges, naïvely hoping that it would have a cathartic effect and guarantee that the rest of the day would be expletive-free (of course it didn’t work). Swearing at length came very easily then. It takes a real effort now; in fact it doesn’t feel good at all (partly because one realizes how much our languages carry millennia’s worth of chauvinism, homophobia and racism, not to mention “mere” verbal violence). I’m not sure whether the discomfort registers on the face, though, which is part of what intrigues me in this ongoing project trying to document the effects of micro-events.

b) I have been “living” partly in English since my teenage years, and have lived in Israel for over a decade, but it turns out my swearing abilities have remained far more formidable, richer and more varied in my mother-tongue French. (Don’t expect me to release the behind-the-scene video for this one, though—you’ll have to take my word for it 😅).

c) I only swore for 56 seconds in French because I misinterpreted the beeps of my stopwatch. I hope it still counts.

d) It is virtually impossible to swear in Hebrew without using Arabic. Possibly not the strongest basis for coexistence, you may say, but hey, whatever works. I don’t think we can afford to be picky these days.

e) The tank top was not chosen for the series, I happened to wear it as I had just been developing some film (which is drying behind me in the frames). I hope seeing me in that outfit causes no distress to anyone.

Before swearing | After swearing for 56s in French | After swearing for 60s in English | After swearing for 60s in Hebrew and Arabic.