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eavesdrop|ˈēvzˌdräp|

verb ( -dropped , -dropping ) [ intrans. ]

secretly listen to a conversation : she opened the window just enough to eavesdrop on the conversation outside.

DERIVATIVES

eavesdropper noun

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: back-formation from eavesdropper ( late Middle English ) [a person who listens from under the eaves,] from the obsolete noun eavesdrop [the ground on to which water drips from the eaves,] probably from Old Norse upsardropi, from ups ‘eaves’ + dropi ‘a drop.’

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Eavesdropping is unethical, improper; considered gossip and taboo. Eavesdropping though allows me to understand the events for what they are and not for what they were supposed to be. Since these audible details of every day life were supposed to stay behind closed doors, I break the rules, I bypass ethics and bring my ear close to the wall, listen and so the walls grow ears. I hear tension, I hear fights, conversations, love making, joy, despair and frustration. Through eavesdropping I understand this country and the people who inhabit it. My ear in the shape of a microphone discovers the secret life of a society struggling to conceal its own reality and now I bring it to you. Place your ear upon the glass, then the glass on the wall and listen to what life really sounds like.

The installation Eavesdropping; Crisis by Luc Messinezis was presented at Pyrgos Cultural Centre (Tinos Island, Greece), Reworks 2011 festival (Thessaloniki, Greece), Ethnographic Terminalia 2011 (Montreal, Canada) and Athens Digital Arts Festival 2015 (Athens, Greece).

Eavesdropping; Crisis – Part 1

Eavesdropping; Crisis – Part 3