The collaborative video installations made by the Iranian exiles Shirin Neshat and Sussan Deyhim are considered. The case is made that while the visual component of the installation might seem to support critical apprehensions that the works are binary, opposing the Orient and the West and presenting the Other for Western viewers as either exotic or nostalgic, the sound strategies adopted consciously strive for hybridity and connection. The examples are audio-visual installations rather than single-screen projected film, and medium specificity is only taken into account to the extent that it has a bearing on the cross cultural potential of image and sound.