Selective Hearing Mia Lainchbury

“Do you miss me?”
“Have you ever been jealous of me?”
“How does my past relationship impact us?”
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These are some of the questions you’d hear when listening to the project.
Selective Hearing is a social experiment, breaking down the barriers of our culture and society; simply by getting two people to answer secret questions and discussing the answers.
It challenges how we communicate with one another and allows the pair to converse one-to-one about topics that matter to their individual relationship.
The participants are interviewed beforehand, being asked a selection of questions to help mould the ones that are asked in the recording process. The questions are kept secret up until the individual turns over the card, the adds a real element of raw emotion, they haven’t had time to prepare their answer and it puts a healthy amount of pressure to reply with what they really want to say, as there is no time to think of anything but the truth. The intimate environment can host many couples that hold a past or present bond.
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The thirty-minute production allows the listener to be a fly on the wall on discussions between a couple of nearly 8 months, twins that are being separated for the first time because of university, and an ex relationship that haven’t spoken since the split.
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Inspiration for this graduate project came from the creator starting counselling – again just discussing with a stranger their problems. After the positive effects this had, it was felt that everyone could be more open within their current relationships or discuss the problems that arose in previous ones.
Our culture is known for holding back and not discussing the things that really matter, Selective Hearing aims to rebel against this notion and bring people closer together with the simple action of talking.