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Voice and Space
Workshop, performance, 2015 – 2018. Sound fragment: 3’32’’.
In this workshop the participants explored the voice in relation to a spatial experience, discovering the acoustics and choreographical possibilities within di erent architectures. Engaging in longer temporalities, loosing the notion of chronological time, the group presented a final performance in the entrance hall of the museum. The distance between the mirroring glass of the entrance hall and the group of screamers grew as they slowly approached us, the audience. It was a procession of people who walked backwards like snails, a ship on departure sliding from the beach, with her back to the patient sea. All embracing the presence of ‘Le Penseur’, in the very centre of this huge hallway, a statue exemplifying the eye of the storm. I have learned that Rodin was inspired by ‘La Divina Commedia’; indeed the event recalled Dante’s gate of hell. We as listeners were witnesses of a long journey through the waiting hereafter.
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‘Voice and Space’ is a workshop about how our sensory body is positioned within our environment. Through exercises involving listening, breathing, singing, and walking, we observe and experiment with tones, vowel variations, and different bodily positions. Intuitively reacting to the surroundings, we explore how to use the space for the production of sound, amplifying and affecting the acoustic voice. Moving towards a corner, wall or window, or facing another singer gives more energy to the tones and their spatial reflections.
This enhancement is particularly strong in the collective singing of sustained tones. The cloud of voices can have more intensity – walking, for example, towards the centre of a space and then retreating again to its edges. Mixing with each other, the decentralised voices become a pool of frequencies with changing harmonies and dissonances. When the same frequencies are sung, they reinforce each other and, with small tonal differences, can form a rich continuum. The experiences provided by this performative process allow the physical voice-space to be choreographed.
‘Voice and Space’ workshops took place in different spaces, such as an office, parking lot, park, garage, garden, under a bridge, and on a beach. It includes performances, drawings, and videos. It has been presented as part of amongst others: ‘Ciclo Aloardi: Audiosesión’, curated by Gabriel Castillo Agüero at Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Lima (PE), 2015; Asimtria Festival, Arequipa (PE), 2015, at Selva Alegre Park, curated by Marco Valdivia and co-produced by Collective Aloardi; artist-in-residency programme at Tupac Asociación Cultural, Lima (PE), 2015; Physique(s) du Son, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg (FR), 2018.
