• Doors: 19:30
• Start time: 20:00
• Entrance: 5-10 € (up to your offer)

‘Sentire’ is an Italian word that means both to hear and to feel: we want to discover this fine mixture of perception that requires to slowly listen and experience tiny body sensations and sound events. ‘Sentire' project was initiated by Marcello Lussana and Olga Kozmanidze in 2016. The performance series are based on interactive sound of the participants and they are part of a PhD research on human perception.

>The performance<
In the course of the performance we invite audience to participate and experience “Sentire” during individual sessions 6-10 min long. The participants interact with a guide: both of them are connected to the sound system through a device which is able to detect a distance and touch between two people.

Following the given instructions offered by the guidance, the participant proceeds through a scenario of two phases of interaction. Depending on distance and touch different sounds are triggered and changed. Both hearing and feeling influence each other, creating a feedback loop of physical, emotional and intellectual experience. These senses gradually morph one into another through time giving a chance to perceive one’s body on a deep level. The participants have the possibility to experience some kind of “shared meditation” - a deep sensory experience caused by human interaction modulated into instant sound feedback.

>Embodied Contemplative Practices and Interactive Music<
Human movement has become more and more central in today’s music performance, in particular because of an increasing use of interactive technologies that allow the body to generate and control music. In order to better understand this kind of musical expression, we need to understand the body and perception. Embodied contemplative practices (like Qigong or Yoga) have developed a knowledge of the body that can be helpful to understanding human perception: phenomenology and embodied cognition have studied and adopted this knowledge in order to scientifically consider first-hand experiences without reductionism. If the role of the body is so important for interactive music performance, we need to consider and include this perceptual knowledge into interactive music practices. The goal of this doctoral research is to develop an interactive music system that supports and helps the development of specific abilities of embodied contemplative practices: proprioperception, self-observation and introspection.

>Participation in the performance<
No special requirements are needed to participate: people from any background, any experiences, any age are welcome. We kindly inform you that: - during each session photo and video recording will be done. - all sessions are open for the audience: anyone from the visitors may be present during each individual session. - We would like to have a phenomenological interview with any of the participants, possibly within the following two days after the show. This takes 30 minutes. This is not a precondition to participate but it is warmly welcomed. The interview can be carried out in person in Berlin or anywhere by Skype.

>>>Participants feedbacks<<<

“My senses were amplified”

“When the sound at the end stopped, I spent some time with my eyes closed and it felt like something has been taken away from me. Like you had this new power, this new sense, and then it disappears. I felt like I don't want to go back to my previous state…”

“There was a moment when i could not distinguish anymore who does what. This was actually the most exciting part for me. it became a melting experience.”

“… very small movements but big impact on the sounds, so when it happened for the first time it was beautiful soundwise.”

“There is a way of communication but both sides do not know what it is.”

“… you don't use sound as much as visual sensors, but the moment you don't have visual anymore the other senses start playing a more important role.”

“I was feeling good because this is the kind of intensity i'm usually looking for. This intensity of encounter with the other.”

“When our hands approached for the first time, this moment brought away from the feeling of being observed, from my external judgement, and took me to the present moment: this is about what it is happening here and now.”

“…it was also the moment when i stopped thinking, there is more to explore, so stop thinking and listen more carefully to these senses, stop thinking what i was supposed to do and react and just go with the flow.”

More info: http://www.sentire.me/

The movLab community at Spektrum is researching ways to digitize motion and the human body and to make the data accessible for further use in VR, gaming, stage performance or art. We are building sensors, writing code and exploring new ways of moving. Read more: http://spektrumberlin.de/communities/movlab/about.html