Audiophiles! Throughout September we’re collaborating with the wonderful Falling Tree Productions to bring you a month long line-up of events, audio installations and workshops in the Barbican.
Listening to creative radio and podcasts is often considered a secondary activity – one you might do in motion, submerged in a hot bath or lying in bed on the edge of dreams. But how might the act of listening occupy public space?
Soundhouse: The Listening Body presents a series of alternative visions for public listening environments, playing a curated collection of audio works designed to provoke the imagination and stimulate the senses in a radically reimagined space. The installation is open for visitors to experience for free (6 Sep – 4 Oct) where they can hear a curated collection of audio works during the Barbican’s opening hours. An accompanying publication, which features a series of essays by experts in the field of radio and podcasting, is available for sale in the Barbican Shop.
The following events will accompany Soundhouse: The Listening Body.
Conversation No. 7
Tue 11 Sep 2018, 7pm and 8pm
Enter into conversation with the radio in a collective listening session which highlights
the work of sound artist and composer Duncan Speakman and Belgian writer and
dramaturg Tineke de Meyer. Duet and Conversation No. 7 explore the porous
borders between recorded sound and the bodily presence of the listener.
Conversation No. 7 is followed by a Q&A with the artists.
Looking
Tue 18 Sep 2018, 7.30pm and 8.30pm
Audio is rarely thought of as a visual medium, but do the sounds that we hear alter
the way that we see? This experiment in collective listening introduces elements of
theatre to examine how sound and sight interact, exploring how stories of viewing,
voyeurism and mirrors can shift your perception of the world around you.
Dreaming
Sat 22 Sep 2018, 7pm and 8pm
Lie back and share a collective dream in a starlit audio cinema. Weaving together
fiction, reality and the voices of the audience, Dreaming is a collaboration between
audio artist Kaitlin Prest and musician Inne Eysermans.
Visitors will be asked to record a couple of sentences on their phones to be emailed
in advance of the event.
The Humdrum
Sat 29 Sep 2018, 2-4pm
A powerful immersive audio experience created from anecdotes of microaggressions
faced by minorities in everyday life. Guests are invited to participate and leave their
own experiences or reflections on exit. The Humdrum is newly commissioned for
Soundhouse: The Listening Body produced by Stance, an award-winning
podcast covering arts, culture and current affairs, from diverse, global perspectives.
Meditation: Everything, Nothing, Harvey Keitel
Mon 1 Oct 2018, 6.30pm
In the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world, the city of lights and dreams
and distractions, a man sits down and tries to meditate. Learning to meditate is hard.
Emptying one’s mind, focusing entirely on one’s breath is hard. And it gets even
harder for the man with the realisation that he’s sitting next to the famous actor
Harvey Keitel… This event interlaces a collective listening session with a guided
meditation, exploring distracted bodies and wandering minds.
Meditation: Everything, Nothing, Harvey Keitel is followed by a Q&A with producer
Pejk Malinovski.
Movement
Thu 4 Oct 2018, 7pm
We dance to music but do we dance to spoken word? Whether or not we notice it,
most of us listen to the radio or podcasts in motion, whether doing the dishes,
commuting or walking in the park. This workshop will ask participants to explore what
happens when we focus our attention on the way we listen with our bodies.
Combining collective listening with a movement workshop, this session will include a
discussion where participants can feedback about their experience.
In collaboration with Jess Shane from Constellations
WHEN: 6th September – 4th October 2018
WHERE: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
TICKETS: Listening loop will be free to visit all month, events are £4