Acoustic Encounters

Creators	Sounding Bodies
Duration	150 min

"A must for ASMR-lovers! An intimate theatre experience you'll seldom witness. This performance revolves around deep listening and creates a personal connection between the performers and the audience. "

— Korzo's music programmer Jan Willem

ASMR to the max, de ultimate listening experience

Supposedly, we are more connected than ever, are presented with more choices than we can possibly fathom, and experience more freedom. At the same time we’ve never been this lonely, and our choices are increasingly meddled by algorithms that are growing smarter and smarter. The possibility of connecting with the other is being kept in check further and further.

In a world overloaded with visual stimuli, standing firm becomes more taxing by the day. We sometimes forget what being a good listener can accomplish. If you remove everything and concentrate on actual sound, a whole new world can open up right in front of you. With Acoustic Encounters, Sounding Bodies seeks out the ultimate listening experience.

Sound, like touch, is very direct. So what happens exactly when we connect the touching and the listening? How does it feel to be actually touched by sound, with no barriers between you and a tone? Listening with your whole body, so to speak. ASMR to the max. With their latest project Acoustic Encounters Sounding Bodies takes it one step further to eliminate all the noise between visitor and the aural experience.

Sounding Bodies uses music to help people connect with themselves and others. Music can offer comfort and recognition while inspiring a different approach to the world around us. In this way, this company uses artistry to create social meaning and develop broader social value.

Sounding Bodies radically breaks with the world of hard and big opposites. Instead, it makes impact with soft activism, empathy and affection. 'We don't know the answers to the complex issues of our time, but we can initiate the encounter. In doing so, we shift the focus from distraction to attention, from superficiality to depth and from fragmentation to concentration.'

After the performance, you are welcome to join us in the Club for a talk hosted by Transformative Listening. Transformative Listening is a study of (new forms of) audience interaction in light of major current social and economic transformations, and the role art (experience) can play in it.

As part of Transformative Listening, researchers Arthur Kok and Frank Slijpen supervise follow-up interviews after performances of Acoustic Encounters by Sounding Bodies. To do so, they use new methodologies, such as action research and design-oriented research, with the idea of enriching their research methods beyond existing quantitative and qualitative research methods. Besides the increasing focus on impact, they believe it is important to continue to do justice to the diversity of perspectives. As well as in follow-up interviews, the researchers also worked with Sounding Bodies in the rehearsal process.