practice #16: detune
saturday, august 12nd, 4pm, free entry
never apart
7049 saint-urbain
we would like all guests to be able to participate, so pls arrive on time. seating is limited and first come, first served.

Sasha Ford – Detune

My sound practice investigates the embodied effects of psychological experience within the realm of auditory environments. In the form of performances, recordings, and installations, I create somatically immersive and rhythmically sensitive sound works guided by improvisation, intuition, and a sense of surreptitious musicality. I attend to physically demanding aspects of sound upon the body, such as volume and frequency, and at once invite a sense of narrative that sits liminally between the concrete and the abstract, the imagined and the unremembered. To date, these pursuits have taken the form of using repurposed objects, tape machines, and field recordings in collaboration with architectural space and with consenting bodies–whether my own or those of others. Through these explorations, I aim to provoke sensory awareness and modes of corporeal recollection that navigate a tension between therapeutic and disarming in effect.
For my performance as part of the “practice” series at Never Apart, I will build upon my interests in the intersection of sound, psychology, and the body specifically by exploring the tuning fork as an object of political and acoustic resonance. Employed in late 19th-century psychological research by the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, tuning forks were used as a hypnotic means to induce cataleptic episodes in female patients. Sounded at high volumes in close proximity to a patient’s ears, such practices are now understood as one of many injurious treatments for the no longer medically-recognized condition of “female hysteria.” Yet, the status of tuning forks as an object of healing continues to this day, being seen within certain alternative medicine circles as provoking restorative vibrations within the body. From a place of fascination with the object’s dual status as a corrective instrument in the realm of medicine and in musical pitch, for “practice” I will create a listening environment with acoustic tuning forks and digital resonators. Specifically, I will explore the resonance of 64 hz tones (C2 in scientific pitch notation), a pitch Charcot that describes using to induce hypnosis in “major hysterics.” By purposely sounding and manipulating this tone, I aim construct a listening environment that critically appropriates and reworks this disciplinary and gendered history, and functions as a form of transhistorical communion with these “hysterical” women of the past. In doing so, I aim to inquire into the healing properties of vibrational resonance and of the 64 hz tone in particular, which in its low frequency invites listeners to connect to a sense of groundedness, the Earth, and self-observation of the body.

for more on this artist, see here: www.sashaford.com

practice is an investigation of the capability of sound to induce different transcendental states of awareness and being. through a series of noise sets, practice explores the experiential application of theories underpinning the transformational properties of sound, such as cymatics, music therapy, sound healing, brain entrainment, and binaural-beat perception.

each session features a noise artist, who, informed by their own knowledge of sound, creates a immersive set intended to bend consciousness. listeners are encouraged to embrace a receptive, meditative attitude during sets.

we don’t mind if you’re new or old to noise or meditation.
if you’re curious to be engaged, to open yourself to new experiences and to hear some noise, then join us.

we have yoga mats available to use and listeners are invited to bring their own sitting paraphernalia if they please.

never apart is a non-profit organization in montréal, québec, canada, determined to bring about social change and spiritual awareness through cultural programming with global reach and impact.

more info on practice, here: http://listpoem.com/practice/
and here: http://listpoem.com/category/listening-series/