Double Bind

Format

Double Bind is a performance format that brings together speakers from different professional fields around an overlapping theme. For instance, a firefighter and a banker discussing risk, a psychotherapist and a cryptographer talking about trust, or an archaeologist and a novelist discussing narratives. A moderator asks them identical questions. While one speaker responds, the others wear headphones and can't hear. The testimonies unfold in parallel. Only the audience has access to all of them. Afterwards, the speakers remove their headphones and the audience is invited to ask further questions.

Behind the speakers, a live transcription and co-occurrence analysis visualises each speaker's vocabulary, showing in real time where their accounts converge, diverge, or bypass each other entirely. The audience follows the same analysis on their phones. As the performance unfolds, audience, moderator and artist work together to read across the two testimonies.

www.doublebind.art

Past Performances

Double Bind I: Data Journalist & Art Conservator

15 May 2026

• Julia Barthel, Investigative Data Journalist, Bayerischer Rundfunk

• Helena Ernst, Freelance Conservator for Modern and Contemporary Art

• Moderated by Hannah Heinzinger, Journalist, Bayerischer Rundfunk

Curated by Hanns Lennart Wiesner, hosted by Bayerischer Rundfunk as a part of Various Others, Munich

Double Bind II: Plastic Surgeon & Filmmaker

15 May 2026

• Prof. Dr. med. Niclas Broer, Head of Department of Plastic Surgery, Klinikum Bogenhausen

• Stuart McSpadden, Director, Bayerischer Rundfunk

• Moderated by Hannah Heinzinger, Journalist, Bayerischer Rundfunk

Curated by Hanns Lennart Wiesner, hosted by Bayerischer Rundfunk as a part of Various Others, Munich

Upcoming Performances

Double Bind III: Diplomat & Relationship Therapist

28 May 2026

• Tomass Pildegovičs, Advisor to the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs

• Kristīne Balode, Relationship and Psychosexual Therapist

• Moderated by Josh Spero, Wealth Editor, Financial Times

Dailes Theatre, Riga Art Week, Riga

Double Bind IV

20 August 2026

International Summer Festival, Kampnagel and MARKK, Hamburg

Double Bind V

21 August 2026

International Summer Festival, Kampnagel and MARKK, Hamburg