Performative Discussion: CEM A. "Double Bind" | RAW'26

What happens when two experts answer the same questions without hearing one another? A live experiment in human relations.

Double Bind is a live research performance in which two speakers from different professional fields respond to the same set of questions in parallel. One speaker wears noise-isolating headphones, so they cannot hear the other. The audience witnesses both testimonies one after another. A moderator structures the session and controls the flow.

Behind the speakers, a projected visualization (Dual Trace) performs real-time linguistic analysis on both transcriptions, mapping where the speakers’ vocabularies converge and diverge. The audience also has access to a live companion website with additional data from the performance.

This special edition of Double Bind at RAW'26 will focus on the subject of relationships, explored through both interpersonal and geopolitical perspectives. The discussion will bring together Kristīne Balode — a clinical psychologist, relationship and sexuality therapist — and Tomass Pildegovičs — Advisor on Security and Societal Resilience to the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as a researcher in international relations and strategic communications. The conversation will be moderated by Josh Spero, Wealth Editor at the Financial Times.

The format positions the audience as active researchers rather than passive spectators. There are no winners, no correct answers, and no consensus to reach. The goal is to observe how two people, asked the same questions without hearing each other, arrive at overlapping or divergent language, frameworks, and assumptions. Double Bind is not a debate, a panel, or an interview. The structural constraint (two people answering the same questions without hearing each other) is the work.