Somatic Performance Philosophy and Vocal Soundscapes by Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano

This exposition is part of a session on Somatic Performance Philosophy and Vocal Soundscapes, part of a 'Somatically-informed Performance Research and Reflection Gathering', 23-26 August in the island of Corfu, Greece.

SOMATIC PERFORMANCE PHILOSOPHY AND VOCAL SOUNDSCAPES

This workshop proposes participants to become somatic listeners in a process of making vocal relations with a - for this session - specific selected soundscape. Inspired by F. M. Alexander’s writings about sensuous consciousness and a diffractive artistic research methodology with reference to terms ‘touch’ and ‘intra-action’, the somatic act of listening (in itself) will be guiding participants throughout the whole session. Starting with the question ‘What happens in an encounter?’ a series of acts and doings will emerge. These acts cannot be fully known or described in advanced, but will appear as encounters in the actual moment of experience. The task of the session will be to follow the deep somatic listening, to document the thinking-through-vocal-action that emerges, and to explore potential modes of presenting what eventually has occurred through the somatic listening act – without losing hold of the somatic experience itself. This session can be categorized as somatic performance philosophical event.

This exposition will inform participants about other research projects of significance for the session, as well as relevant terminological explanations that will be encountered throughout the session.

ELISABETH BELGRANO is a vocal performer and artistic researcher with a special interest in performing vocal crossings between 17th^th and 21st^st centuries. She is currently researching the practice of 17^thcentury vocal ornamentation as a performative model for communicating and creating trust and hope, applicable to multiple scales and spacetimes, such as in environmental, social and political relations. She has been invited to present her work at festivals and conferences in Europe, Japan and in the US. She has also been affiliated as a guest teacher at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts at the University of Gothenburg and is currently supervising an artistic doctoral fellow in the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.