Conceptual design for INTIMAL: a physical/virtual embodied system for Relational Listening

Abstract

This paper articulates the design for the first stage of INTIMAL: a physical/virtual embodied interactive system for relational listening in the context of human migration, set within the artistic practice of improvisatory telematic sonic performance. Informed by the Deep Listening experiences of nine Colombian migrant women in Europe and integrating Embodied Music Cognition Methods, INTIMAL draws upon sensorial experience in dreams, virtual spaces, and physical spaces to develop a holistic understanding of the body as an interface that keeps one’s memory of place. Technologies are intended to be used as mediations aiding the co-relations in listening for the sensing, processing and retrieval of an oral archive of other women’s testimonies from the Colombian civil war, while improvisers’ body movements, voices, and spoken words resonate with these voices. The author suggests how INTIMAL system could act as catalyst for creating new layers in the reconstruction and transformation of embodied memory, opening paths for individual and collective healing of feelings associated to the migratory experience and the armed conflict.

Conceptual design for INTIMAL: a physical/virtual embodied system for Relational Listening