For The Milk of Dreams, the main exhibition of the 2022 Venice Biennale, Simnikiwe Buhlungu realised And the Other Thing I Was Saying Was: A Conver-something (2022), an interactive sound installation of theremins, electronic musical synthesisers that – through the interaction of its electromagnetic fields and our bodies – play recorded sounds coming from different sources: namely, Pink noise, Mam’ Miriam Makeba, Binyavanga Wainaina, Hadedas and a Percussive Rhythm Section. Together, and with interaction from audience, this conver-something departs off of “dreaming” as a thought, a confession, as communication from biological systems, as ubiquitous bodily language, shared socio-historical encounters, as an imagination, a time-sensitive annoyance, as a mistake, as a pause, an adlib, as something very real – opening up this conver-something to existing beyond “spoken,” articulable language.

Words by Melanie Kress.