METHOD
Aisha Hetzel and Clio Panagiotopoulou from Collective Brownout led the second two laboratory sessions in December 2024. Aisha brought her experience as an aerial rope artist and Clio as a classical cellist to explore the unspoken language our bodies carry every day, through breath, movement, and sound.
Custom-made instruments activated the space, inviting participants to experience vocal resonance through a series of auditory-motor exercises (auditory signals combined with motor responses). Through a series of guided improvisations and exercises from Musicality of Movement by Virag Dezso, Vocal Rooms by Meredith Monk, circus practice, and music improvisation we experimented with voices and instruments as extensions of our physical language.
The sessions were hosted at Tall Tales Studio in Rotterdam West.
THEORY
The notion that the body is itself a voice challenges the traditional understanding of language as purely verbal, proposing instead that the body communicates meaning autonomously through movement, gesture, and expression. This theory draws on insights from neuroscience, psycholinguistics, and performance theory to argue that the body is not merely a passive conduit for speech but an active, expressive medium in its own right.
Recent advances in neuroscience and psycholinguistics underscore the deep interconnection between physical movement and cognitive processes. The brain’s plasticity and the close interaction between auditory and motor systems suggest that bodily actions play a crucial role in shaping our capacity for learning and creativity. Rozé et al. (2020) demonstrate how the postural behavior of cellists directly affects the quality of sound they produce, illustrating that the body is not simply an enabler of musical performance but a co-creator of sound. This study highlights how motor control and auditory perception are fundamentally linked, supporting the idea that the body’s movements themselves convey expressive meaning.
The expressive potential of the body is central to the practice of Mime Corporel, which views movement as a structured language capable of conveying complex ideas without speech. According to de Haas and Vogels (2022), Mime Corporel isolates and refines physical gestures, treating the human body as an instrument that produces meaning much like musical notes in a composition. This perspective positions the body not as a supplementary tool but as a primary voice, capable of communicating narratives through intentional, embodied expression.
Similarly, the New Discipline approach to composition challenges the boundary between music and music theatre, emphasising the physical presence of performers as an integral aspect of musical experience. Walshe (2016) argues that all music inherently involves theatrical elements, suggesting that the way performers move, gesture, and inhabit space is inseparable from the sound they produce. This fusion of sound and bodily presence blurs the line between music and performance, reinforcing the idea that the body is an expressive entity in its own right.
