In July 2022, I spent a week in Southampton, working with movement artist Gabriel Galvez. Together, we led a series of workshops with elders who usually participate in Gabriel's 'dance for Parkinsons' and movement classes for older people. Our sessions explored the relationship between sound, memory and gesture.
The sessions invited elders into the gardens outside community centres to practice listening techniques. We listened to birds, traffic, wind rustling leaves. We listened again via headphones, noticing the change in amplitude and detail, and the filtering and selecting of sounds our ears naturally do for us. These experiences with listening triggered memories of sounds for some - and as we unpacked these stories, we began to explore gestures and movement in response. Recordings of these stories triggered by sound were edited into an audio college, which premiered at a 'listening cinema' at John Hansard Gallery.
This project was part of Voices in the Gallery, with support from John Hansard Gallery.
Read an accessible text version, by Care-fuffle.