Small Title
Ximena Alarcón-Díaz, PhD
Sonic Migrations Artist - Researcher
Interfaces for Relational Listening (INTIMAL), Deep Listening®, Telematic Sonic Performance
INTIMAL
In INTIMAL project I explored how does the body becomes an interface that keeps and transforms memory of place, in the context of human migration. Furthermore, how can people improvise and transmit a full emotional body experience with non-screen-based interfaces. The research led to the creation of an “embodied” physical-virtual system of interfaces for relational listening, to be used in telematic sonic performance. The INTIMAL system combines interactive audio and transmission software through MEMENTO, RESPIRO and TRANSMISSION software prototypes. The first two use sensor based technology to create interrelations between body movement, oral archives, voice and spoken language within an improvised performance situation.
The system was informed by research on the migratory listening experiences from nine Colombian migrant women in Europe, using Deep Listening® practice and methods of Embodied Music Cognition and Human Computer Interaction. It was tested in a telematic performance, on May 7, 2019, connecting women across the sites of Oslo, Barcelona and London. INTIMAL was developed thanks to a Marie Skłodowska Curie funded postdoctoral research project at the RITMO Centre in the University of Oslo (2017-2019).
This is a documentary video of the INTIMAL Research project:
INTIMAL artistic research led to many publications and further developments such as the INTIMAL App, and the surround sound installation UNRAVELLING, and community developments such as the Intimal Collective, that have extended beyond the completion of the project.
See a dedicated webblog and follow the INTIMAL project
INTIMAL system
TELEMATIC SONIC PERFORMANCES
My work with Telematic Sonic Performances (2012 - present) has explored the ‘in-between’ sonic space that exists within the context of migration, through Deep Listening practice and improvisatory performances on the Internet, in order to expand the perceived sonic spaces that inform the migratory experience. I have consolidated this work through INTIMAL exploring alternative forms of embodied sense of place and sense of presence (tele-presence) in contexts of geographic dislocation. With my latest performance VERTICES, each improviser explores and creates her/his own interface to communicate with others in dream like narratives, expanding it through the virtual platform.
See my Telematic Sonic Performances
SOUNDING UNDERGROUND
Sounding Underground is a virtual environment that invites users to interact with the soundscapes of three underground public transport systems: London, Paris and México City. Commuters’ memories and imaginations are represented in sounds and images that have been selected by volunteer commuters through an ethnographic process.
I received funding from The Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship 2007-2009, and the support of the Institute of Creative Technologies - IOCT, at De Montfort University for the research that gave birth to this work.
See a sample of Sounding Underground
SONIC MIGRATIONS
Listen to the recently published bilingüal (Spanish-English) sound-work "Three Listening Rituals in Sonic Migrations" in Rallying the Commons. E-Journal 2 by performingborders
These scores invite you to listen to sonic migrations: the resonances left in between the borders we cross when we tune in and meet others across distant locations. The pieces are offered as a trilogy of rituals to connect your body to the dream world, to childhood memories of curiosity about nature, and to other beings that are more than human. I am transmitting the rituals as bilingual sound pieces using my native and my second language, listening to how my own migration informs my changing vocal identities.
PODCASTS
Listen to my recent work, of two podcasts (Episodes 2 and Episode 3), a commission by Sintesis Lab, Bogotá, Colombia, to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogotá.
El Podcast 2 "La música me toca" , me pregunto cómo la música toca cuerpos. Realizo un ritual de escucha profunda y de improvisación sonora entre tres músicos del ensemble de música contemporánea Bortex, y tres personas de la audiencia; en la sutil interacción emergen en retorno nuevas músicas.
El episodio 3 "Una Conversación entre Resonancias de Escucha" fue resultado de una colaboración con la artista Julia Nanda Bejarano García, una conversación/intervención vocal sobre la escucha de las resonancias al acabar el concierto Conmemoración del Acuerdo de Paz en el Auditorio Fabio Lozano, en Bogotá, el 25/11/ 2022.
