Residency | Exploring Vibration & Pattern Rhythmicity | Sharon Stewart & Bettina Neuhaus

CLOUD is happy to welcome Sharon Stewart & Bettina Neuhaus for their residency in February!

Exploring Vibrational and Natural Pattern Rhythmicity:
Saturation and Distillation in Body and Sound

Stewart & Neuhaus aim to investigate how the body – with its tangible, palpable matter and its immaterial facets – responds and relates to sound on the level of vibration, vibrational rhythmicity and rhythms generated by natural patterns (see below) and how rhythms of the body inspire the generation of sound and sonic vibrations.
● How do sound vibrations alter the rhythmicity of the permeable physical body – vibrating bones, tissues and organs – and stimulate movement? This raises the question: what is inner (response to) rhythmicity as revealed in movement?
● How do external sound vibrations travel through the body and influence it in terms of directionality?
● What is the role of space as a connecting and transmitting medium between body and
sound?

What we include with sonic vibrational rhythmicity is based on the understanding that vibrations might be considered sped-up “beats,” which can be manipulated through interference, playing with constructive and destructive interference, to generate pulses and using panning and LFO’s to manipulate these phenomena, for example. With natural pattern rhythmicity, we explore the transient peaks or amplitude curves of sounds that might be considered “natural,” such as that of flowing water or the choruses of birds or insects.We will also address the rhythmicity of the body – heartbeat, breath and brainwaves – to the extent that we are able with the technology available. These natural patterns will be examined and exploited for their rhythmic qualities: used either in their unedited version or to drive synthesized sound.

This material – (manipulated) sine (or more complex) waves with their interference patterns and digitally augmented and/or transformed natural pattern rhythms – will be used to create a quadraphonic soundscape that will impact the body of the dancer, create sympathetic vibrations in the sounding space and enter the bodies of the audience as well. If technically possible, we will try to create a responsive system in which the sound is in some way affected/controlled by the dancer. During the residency these explorations and this research will be continually sifted for the compositional material it offers.

About the artists

Bettina Neuhaus is an Amsterdam-based dance artist and researcher who has been working in the field of performance internationally for more than 25 years, collaborating with dancers, musicians, visual artists, poets and philosophers. In addition to her work as prominent improviser, she creates performative installations, site-specific performances and lecture-demonstrations. Propelled by her ongoing fascination with the body in motion – its intelligence, imagination and transformative nature – her work emphasizes the fluid use of the entire spectrum of expression: moving, sounding and speaking.
www.bettinaneuhaus.com

Sharon Stewart studied piano at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Faculty of Music, and later completed a Masters in Music Pedagogy at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, where she focused on feminism, improvisation and technology in a music pedagogical practice. Works with dancers have been performed at festivals and other venues in Arnhem, Nijmegen, Amsterdam, The Hague (NL), Copenhagen (DE) and Marseilles (FR). Field recordings form an inspirational basis for many of her compositions. Sharon became certified in Deep Listening, with Pauline Oliveros, IONE and Heloise Gold in 2011 and is now a teacher for the online Deep Listening program at RPI.
www.handsonpiano.nl
www.sonicstudies.org
www.soundcloud.com/sharonrstewart

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