Ancient immersivity.
I organised group listening workshops before a performance evening in Spanners, Brixton from my collective Roca. We thought by meeting outside in a park and then walking to the club together it would increase the intimacy potential of our event. This footage is from our 3D immersive surround sound system!
Last Summer we organised multiple outdoor events with a radio system to transmit and amplify live performances without needing a lot of equipment. For this event it was not possible to set up the radio system so I thought we could do some shared activities together. For this activity, one or more people are instructed to stand with their eyes closed. The rest of the group circle around them and make sounds.
At the beginning of the activity we were quite playful and wanted to surprise eachother. It was clear that the soundmaking position was as stimulating for the participants as the listener postion. I felt it was so are that I improvise with my voice, that I didn’t know what to expect when my body tried to make a new sound. People enjoyed playing together and making eachother laugh.
The participants had different reactions in the listener position. People quickly became overwhelmed when there were lots of soundmakers moving quickly around the space. It became clear that the soundmakers should intend a calm experience for the listener. When they slowed down and made quieter sounds, the listeners were able to focus more on the subtleties and the wider soundscape beyond, bringing a calm sensuality of space and motion. Most people enjoyed the quieter sounds more. If I organise this activity again I would like to add an instruction for quietness or subtley, perhaps as a place to arrive at or throughout the activity.
I noticed people would be curious to ask how it went for the listener and discuss the process together. When I was the listener, I felt a playful connection and warmth from the soundmakers. With the right intentions I imagine this practice to build intimacy between people, their environment and their own bodies. I am very interested to pursue research into group soundmaking and listening practices in my final year!
While I am engaged in terrible research about the end of humanity, doing activities like this make me feel hopeful about what simple practices can do for our sense of togetherness and environment. I am interested in how elaborate and abstract theory (end of the world) can inform simple accessible practices for constructive purposes (new worlds :D). The end of the world as we know it means we have an opportunity to imagine and connect in new ways.
This is my passionate belief in what immersivity can mean and a critique of the term’s usage in virtual reality development.