Listening to what is already there - a scenographic research

Listening to what is already there Conducting the Listener

A Scenographic Research

by Elsa van der Linden

HKU MA SCENOGRAPHY 2019-2021

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Open je oren, alles hoort

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Index

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Reading guide

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Introduction: The scenographer with a background in music

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Positioning myself in my own methodology

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Klank Klank Resonating material Reverbration Conductive feedback-loop Introduction of Happenstance Being in Sound

Theatre space in five statements

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Walks

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Listening

Listening to what is already there Positioning the listener

From noise-cancelling to opening the ears Ears In de verte luisteren Het geleiden van geluid Positioning the ear Passersby

Framing Moment

A Moment where there is no time

Framing to create a narrative

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Closing words

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Insprations

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Notes

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Colofon

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Reading guide

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Open je oren, alles hoort

Open your ears, everything sounds, everything belongs The title of this research document is: Listening to what is already there This is both my methodology of how I approach a space, a piece, a work, a site, a moment as my aim for the spectator of my work.

The document is perforated by moment and happenstance Let it happen if a moment of happenstance appears while reading this document, try to listen to it.

This document gives an insight in a practice based research, showing done experiments, performances, thoughts and inspirations.

Even though this document talks about sound a lot, it doesn’t include any audio files. It doesn’t make sense to add recorded sounds, because you don’t focus anymore on the sounds of what is already there. You can read the document and refer to examples of your own experience, of the space where you are in, or things you will hear after reading this document.

It is OK if you can’t imagine a sound. Just try to translate it to on one of your other senses or as a situation.

My research is about ‘listening’ to what is already there, so use what is already there to help you.

Let this document be an invitation

to listen what’s already there

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Introduction The Scenographer with a background in music

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During my Bachelor in Music (Musician 3.0 at the HKU) I focused on improvisation in music.

Making and playing music to me is about playing with others, feeling and creating sound and rhythm together. And letting this interplay being influenced by what happens in the moment, on the spot.

To focus on how sound moves through space, I tend to close my eyes. It creates an instant composition with the other sounds in the space. Space is an extension of the instrument and being in moment is the condition to be able to improvise.

By closing my eyes on stage, I become aware that the audience is looking at the musicians playing, sometimes even more than joining the listening experience.

The listeners are perceiving, not only with their ears.

How do I want them to listen, to perceive?

This is how my scenographic research started.

Moment has a potential to a story, a narrative, a world where your imagination can go freely.

When you are in moment you are in a state of being where there is no sense of clocktime anymore. A state of being in focus and attention where you have to surrender and be freed of expectations.

How can I stage moment?

How can moment become performative?

How can I create a space to listen to moment?

How can I create a performative space for happenstance?

During my scenographic research I discovered that there is a difference between the listening performer and the listening spectator.

How can I conduct both performer and spectator to listen and be in moment?

As a scenographer I want to create space for experiencing this. It is possible to make frames, structures and compositions beforehand, but in this performative research it is also important that moment, happenstance and thereby liveness have influence on what is happening. This makes that the spectators are more taken by moment.

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Positioning myself in my own methodology

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The listening scenographer This model shows the origin of how I make. The roots are leading to the listener in me. As a child I was staring over the Frisian flatlands a lot. This seemingly silent environment turned out to be my base in listening.

Listening is my base for being human, a musician and a maker.

Listening is perceiving Listening is getting input As an improvising musician and performer I am always listening how sound resonates in space and reacting on that with sound or movement.

The listening human listens and is fascinated The listening human is silent alone The listening human is playing The listening maker is playing music together Silence The listening human is alone and needs others to resonate Listening to resonance in space The listening scenographer is digesting input, is listening to resonance, is creating space to play, is engaging with others, is having a conversation, is sharing, is creating space for input - output You are a listener, I am a listener

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Klank

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The Dutch word ‘klank’ is a much more layered word than the English word ‘sound’. Sound is used for everything that ‘sounds’, both geluid en klank.

Klank includes some parameters about sound:

What I learned as an improviser is that I shouldn’t only listen to the instrument, but to the space, where all the sounds of all instruments come together. Well-known improviser and double bass player Wilbert de Joode calls this ‘the cloud’. If you are able to listen to this cloud instead of only hearing each individual sound, you are able to connect with the unity. Then, as a performer you are able to compose in the now. Because you are in the now you can react and play with counterpoint because you have a better overview of the unity. In the cloud you listen to klank rather than geluid.

Klank has volume

During my scenographic research I became more aware of the effect that sound has in space and the environment I am in.

On the one hand, sonological, how sound moves through space. The other part is how sound moves through space in a more performative way.

Klank implicates some aspects which I think are very important.

It implicates the existence of a certain resonance.

When you, for example, hit by accident a metal construction pillar, it makes sound, het maakt geluid, but this sound resonates. It is not just a sound, it has a voice, a resonating voice, the metal pillar ‘klinkt’.

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Klank has timbre Klank has pitch Klank has duration Klank has articulation Klank exists in time Klank exists in space These parameters tell something about the characteristics of sound, the objects and the space where the sound resonates in. These parameters are also applicable on music, music is composed klank. In my research I look for ways to compose the ear of the spectator to listen to klank as form of music.

Tomas Serrien suggested: ‘To understand the experience with klank you have to listen listen listen and listen.’1 And so I did.

Resonating material

To understand the act of listening, I need to understand a bit more of the behaviour of sound.

Sound moves through space. It reflects on objects and substances and somewhere it reaches your ear. Bats and submarines use a technique called sonar to locate themselves in space. By sending out pulses, sound waves, and perceiving their reflection they know exactly where they are and how the space is shaped.

Every material has its own specific way of resonating and reflecting sound. When an external input, a sound source, is producing sound in a space, it makes klank by the reflection, resonance and the translation of the objects in the space.

By zooming in on these resonating objects, I noticed that some materials have a very clear ‘own voice’ once touched by a sound wave. After testing some materials in an empty corner of my studio I discovered that wood, plastic and pillow had influence on the klank quality. Metal creates even a new layer. Metal even wanted to play a duet with the sounds I played with my saxophone.

Empty corner of my studio

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Wood

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Metal

Pillow

Plastic box

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Reverbration

Metal plates can give sound to the resonance of a space.

They magnify inaudible and invisible sound waves by producing a ‘naklank’. It seems a good starting point to catch the reverberation of sounds in space. But the reverberation is way softer than the sound source itself. It is difficult to hear for a spectator because you have to be really close. If you are on a spot where you can hear the resonance very well, the saxophone is too loud.

Can metal be my instrument, my co-performer of the resonance of a space?

How can I really use this to let a spectator experience sound as a spatial object by using the reverberation.

Practical discoveries: It really depends which thickness of a wire I use to hang a metal plate to get more resonance.

The thinner the better.

Turning the metal plate while they sound, makes movement audible. Sound is projected in different directions in space.

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Conductive feedback-loop

Metal plates almost become an extra sound source.

Metal starts to sing easily, it just needs to be activated. The line between input and output is quite fluent.

From my research on sound in material, I worked towards this instrument. Metal plates connected with a piëzo (contact microphone) and a transducer (contact speaker). Since metal is a very conductive material a feedback loop is made very soon with this combination. It is very sensitive for every small movement. By touching different positions on the surface different tones appear. The vibrations of the sound through the metal evokes new feedbacks and again different tones appear. The vibrations make them move, this has influence on the duration and pitch of the tones. If they move in a direction that the contact disappears, it becomes silent again.

This movement of feedback-loop sounds is used by composer Steve Reich in his Pendulum Music. The microphones make sound through the speakers, input becomes output and vice versa. I am very fascinated by how the weight of the microphone makes the movement and speed through space audible. The movement also triggers me as a listener to go very much into the whole experience.

This metal plates feedback-loop instrument is played by me, collected objects and happenstance.

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Introduction of Happenstance

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Happenstance is something that happened because of certain circumstances, although it was not planned by anyone. Without a reason, while it seems to.

It’s not predictable.

Happenstance fills a gap, pushes something away or squeezes in smoothly.

Happenstance is always there and it is already there.

With this knowledge, it seems impossible to “stage” happenstance.

But can I find a way to set the circumstances in a certain way that performers and spectators are open to let happenstance influence the space?

Can I create space for happenstance, for ‘performative’ elements that are already there?

It requires some improvisation skills of a performer to really play together with happenstance. The senses of both performer and spectator need to be open, open for liveness, open for the moment.

Above that there is the option to already compose a frame, a grid, where happenstance can fill a gap or interact with a planned structure. Placing different pulses in different sequences causes an unexpected and maybe interesting rhythm once you invite happenstance to play with.

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Being in sound

To discover the possibilities of space within sound I started experimenting with dissonance and ultra low sine waves. Sound itself exist in movement and space. Playing with different tones at the same time makes this movement sensible in your whole body. You are in the dissonance of sound.

Dissonance The space that you hear between two tones and the movement that the tones make together opens up the imagination. Sometimes it is really open, sometimes it is really condensed with a lot of tension. When I listen to this, I hear a lot more than only these tones and this triggers my imagination to create a visual moving space in a very abstract way.

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Sound holes Framing empty spaces where you don’t hear the sound - 40 Hz Discovering how sound waves move physically through the space and how the sound fills the space.

How can we be ‘in’ sound, experience sound as space? Sound artist and composer Gabriel Paiuk once let me experience how sound moves through space by putting on a low sine wave and asked us to locate the sound.

For this experiment I sent a 40hz sine wave in a the big theatre space. While walking on the stage you could hear places where the sound was really loud but also places where there was no tone at all. I framed these spots while spectators were also walking around. To invite them to use their ears to move around in space. I noticed that this kind of experiments done in a theatre space give a lot of theatrical and performative expectation.

Once using the theatre space as a performative space I should guide the spectators expectations.

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theatre space in five statements

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a theatre space gives a certain expectation a theatre space is more about time than about space the theatre is a frame to highlight a moment a set design is an instrument the theatre is a frame to give a momentum space

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Walks

world is ‘interrupted’ by a pandemic scenographic research is influenced.

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I started walking. To discover the environment where I was living. To expand my ‘home’.

To get a rhythm.

I documented my ‘lockdown activity’, it became part of my working method.

By collecting walks I noticed that I actually collected moments.

I like to share my work by framing moments for and together with a spectator.

When I walk I didn’t know where to go. I let myself be guided by intuition and happenstance.

Through that I improvised my walks and collected finds to remember myself being in the moment.

This is documented in the next pages, I choose to integrate it in my research document since it speaks about my way of working. It reminds me that what important is now, moment, repetition, rhythm, feeling, sensing. What helps me in that is feeling wind and making walks.

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It is important to keep on moving Be moved and guided by the unexpected

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walking finding rhythm repeating walking the same rhythm finding rhythm finding trying another path finding rhythm trying walking finding loosing path loosing rhythm walking the same repeating trying finding trying repeating the same never the same another path the same path never the same repeating loosing listening loosing listening listening loosing another path listening the wind repeating the wind repeating listening repeating the wind

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the moment where there is no time is now is the moment where there is now time where there is duration already time is not is now is there is already now is now is moving counting to move time is now is moving is there moment is not moment is not time

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the moment where there is moving is now is a car a foot a bike a bug dog crowd sunbeam chicken a lot of rain is now is not is now is leaving a print is now is leaving a trace is not now is trace is now is not now is then is now in trace

moment here is not there not is here moment

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1 april Doorn

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2 april het Grote Bos

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4 april Klompenpad

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6 april het Grote Bos

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7 april Doorn

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BLIND for 36 hours A hairy brush.

A warm bowl with oatmeal The bowl feels way longer than it is.

Sweater feels unrecognisible. Don’t feel body, only ribbed fabric.

Speed, less distance and movement.

Smell incense, outside they are working with machines and trees.

Holding the metal handrail of the stairs to balance. Is that OK with corona?

A flat area. Going underneath something, like a bridge.

Time went faster I miss eye contact I laugh about my body I can’t see space I miss staring out of the window Instead of that I stare out with my ears

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Next day Different shape, different experience, exactly the same route The room is slightly different then I remember I had two total different walks at the exact same place First thought: I am wrong, the image that I had doesn't fit so I failed After a while I got surprised by the idea that I wasn't wrong at all To me it felt so real yesterday Yesterday I was real, so what I thought I experienced was real.

Same as today, I am real and what I experience is real again Or maybe I don't experience real things at all Only memories of what happened before With an addition of time In the now you create, together with the past/memory a new situation. That is improvising.

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10 april Uilentoren

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From the dog’s perspective I go here Of course, because I know that I go here because we always go here. I don’t even think about that I go here my body just moves in this direction. clear.

Oh wait, what’s that on the side of this path?

Maybe it’s interesting.... hm..

Ah yes lets go further on the path. clear.

What’s that sound?

I really don’t know, maybe it’s dangerous.

Maybe it’s super big Is it coming this direction?

OK, lets just go further on the path. clear.

Hey, there are two of these, fun!

But, there a bit further, that’s not good at all.

No I don’t accept this.

Let’s just scream very loud. I am going to scream. Can’t you hear me, I am screaming!

WARNING WARNING This is not good, I am super strong, can’t you hear me?!

OK, lets just go further on the path. I am super strong, mmmmm.

Hey, don’t think I am scared, I am super strong!

Oh wait what’s that.

Maybe that is interesting, mmm, lets try to find out what it hides It smells good, I’m going to dig it up.

Ooooh this is so interesting!

OK, lets just go further on the path. yeey! I am super strong!

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I don’t want to leave I know that I should leave Just try to see if iIcan find something interesting, a good excuse to stay.

Hm... maybe here? smells funny..

No, I should really leave.

Ok, lets just go.

11 april het Grote Bos

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19 april Polder Sterkenburg

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20 april Sterkenburg

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21 april Doorn

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25 april Langbroek

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the wind the wind the wind finding rhythm the wind the wind finding loosing laughing loosing laughing the wind loosing the path laughing walking through nothing walking through walking through painful bush walking the same rhythm finding rhythm trying another path walking trough painful bush walking through falling in rhythm

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10 mei Wilgenpad

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11 mei Uilentoren

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Walking to feel a connection to the environment. To feel a connection to myself. Walking is finding a pulse, being in rhythm.

I need to see a horizon once in a while. Walking to find a horizon. To have an overview of where I am. To feel the wind.

13 mei Doornsegat

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I am shifting to another point and I feel the need to see the horizon.

In de verte kijken

The need to look to the horizon to zoom out, look from a distance.

Be ready for whenever I want to walk again.

Standing at the point where I can see a horizon and feel the wind is home.

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From here I frame moment for the spectator I guide the ear of the spectator I guide the way a spectator is listening by using other senses, the body, time and space

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Listening

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Listening to what is already there

As a child I was a lot in windy situations, living on the flatlands, sailing on a boat, being on the beach in winter. There is already a lot of sound to listen to. I can hear so much klank or even music by only the sound of a windy building or a constant motor of a machine.

If you listen to what is already there, you can hear so much, If you are quiet for a while a lot of beautiful sounds appear.

This has always fascinated me and came back to me during my research. It makes me go back to my memories and my imagination.

The great and well-known composer John cage worked with this concept a lot. Especially in the piece 4’33” silence gets a different meaning. Silence is a place where sound can exist. To just listen to the sounds that appear a composition is created. As Cage says: “There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.”2

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I think he created a base for listening to what is already there. As a scenographer I am interested how I can let spectators, listeners experience this form of listening. And how this form of listening can contribute experiences.

4’33” is staged on a concert stage with musicians and an audience who expects a piece of music.

My aim is to search for more site specific and integrated versions of listening to what is already there.

I am very curious in what ways I can trigger this way of listening by others Can I use this without pushing someone to only use the ears?

What story tells the ‘what’s already there’?

How can I create a tension bow out of the ‘what’s already there’?

When does the ‘what’s already there’ become music/performance/scenography?

How to stage listening to what is already there?

Can I create a listening environment?

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Positioning the Listener; the Walking Listener

Walking is finding a pulse, being in rhythm.

What fascinates me about nature is the presence of rhythm and cycle. It knows how to act, but it acts always in the now.

To let a group of spectators tune in to the environment, we (BUI, a collective of improvisers) decided to create a walk where music and environment would merge.

The spectators were moving, so the perspective of the sound changed. In some parts the music and sounds were also moving. Sometimes you didn’t know if something was planned or played by happenstance. This tension made it playful and as a spectator you could discover a lot of new ways to listen.

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Luisterwandeling - BUI Presented at Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2020

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Positioning the Listener; Luistergids

As an invitation for the spectator to listen to what is already there during the Luisterwandeling, we made a Listening Guide. It was handed out at the beginning of the walk, as a sort of flyer of the programme. It was folded in the shape of a one and thus inviting to place on the ear. Physically it didn’t really change you way of listening, but mentally it created a bigger awareness of the ears as an instrument to use during the walks.

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How can I arrange this ‘composition of sounds’ so that others also can hear the music of what is already there?

In Culemborg I developed the concept of a Luistergids further. I used words to frame sounds that I heard in the space and I positioned them where they were located in the floor plan. I wrote down the sounds that were repetitive. In fact I also placed sounds in the space that weren’t necessarily there. I added them to trigger the ears of the spectators.

Most of them were sounds which you also could include in the space. For example a watercooker that repetitively went on, while there was no tea served. Above that, I also placed obvousily performative sounds and acts. Together with the acts of Kiana Dekkers in the space we created a cycle of performative actions, while in the meantime the other exhibitors and visitors were taking part without knowing. But their sounds were written in the score, so they were part of the composition.

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From noise-cancelling to opening the ears

From an article about noise-cancelling headphones3 I read that people have an ongoing need to control everything that comes to them. They are hungry for information but don’t tolerate sounds or presence of others.

It is comfortable to be in your own bubble, while traveling or working. Wearing headphones everywhere became normal. They cover existing sound with digital sounds. Music, podcasts, phone calls or all kinds of noise are there to block the real noise of what is already there. This makes people overstimulated quite easily. When you turn off the headphones, the “normal” sound reaches the ears and can be experienced way louder.

This ‘ear-opener’ made me think of how I want the listener to be aware.

Aware about the many sounds that are just here.

Can I make the spectators be aware of their ears?

Can I let spectators experience space by guided by their own ears?

How to use and approach the ears of the spectator?

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Ear The ear is a listening apparatus. The ear is the perceiving instrument.

An instrument is both catching sound as producing sound.

An ear is catching input, input is output.

The space in the ear is processing input into output.

Sound is reflecting (in) the earspace. Klank ontstaat.

Shells Space for the ear A space to place close to the ear in the ear around the ear Like a shell on the beach, to hear the sound of the sea To hear the sound of the ear And what do we imagine when we listen to this?

Which story does it tell?

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We can locate sound because of the shape of our ears The ear as instrument to locate yourself The ear as instrument to position yourself By listening we can experience the shape of a space

Ears of clay a study on the shape and tactility of ears

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‘Oorspel’ Which ways can you touch your ear to create sound?

In September 2019 I saw a composition performed of Wilbert Bulsink called ‘Oorspel’. The composition was played by a small classical chamber ensemble and ourselves. Our score was showed by an overhead projector which showed black or white to indicate if we had to put our fingers in our ears or not. This made a big impression me because the sound that was added by closing the ears had a big influence on the played composition by the ensemble. It gave rhythm to parts where there was no rhythm or it even created a counterpoint. After the composition was done, my ears were warm, red and activated to play more with this concept myself.

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Ears of clay II During the first lockdown I wanted see if I could create this playful and connected feeling also trough a videocall.

In this work I asked my spectators, who were in their own space connected trough zoom: What different layers can you hear?

Listening to layers of sound from: my space - your space - the ears of clay - the touch on their ears - the added sounds - their internal ear sounds Upscaling the ears The ears become very important and they can see the movement very detailed, so it’s easier to copy my hands.

Layers of interaction:

me touching the clay ears (literally)

me touching their ears (by influencing them where to touch)

they touching their ear (physically)

they touching my ears (try to understand the way I listen)

our voices in their ears Discoveries: Washing hands also as an ending would have be a good addition to digest what you experienced individually, going to that same place and then going to the feedback-mode.

The sound is coming from the ear. Playing where the sound comes from is interesting. What is input, what is output and can they shift?

The sound of the birds in my own space make it very live because there is a difference between recorded sound and sound that is already there. You need this live sounds to stay focused and in the moment.

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Score: step 1, wash your hands, we are going to touch an important part of the body step 2, sit down behind the zoom, make sure my screen is the biggest possible step 3, make sure you are all on mute step 4, during this experiment you need to copy how my hands touch the ears on your own real ears. Listen carefully! Try to find different layers of listening. step 5, I place my laptop so that they can see the ears and I start with ‘silence’ surround sounds, then touch the ears, then end with silence.

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Listening Listening is perceiving Listening is a sense To gain information About what exists around About space About time To locate and navigate Listening is navigating through space and time Sounds exist only in time only in space Listening is external Listening is internal in

uit

uit

aan

Listening is interpreting Connecting the others to yourself Listening is remembering Listening is relating to context Listening is being in moment

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In de verte luisteren - listening on distance

To develop my listening to ‘what’s already there’ I want to create some space for the ear. A space that you can place close to your ear and where you can put your ear in.

Like a shell on the beach, to hear the sound of the sea. What do we experience when we listen to these different ear-rooms?

And what do we imagine(like the sea) when we listen to this? Which story does it tell us?

How does a place sound where you normally can’t place your ear?

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To let spectators listen very closely on a distance I developed the performative installation Luisterbuizen. Which I placed in the context of a walking concert in a forest in Utrecht. Spectators were guided through a performative walk and so passed by my installation, where I played saxophone in the tubes. My sound was only audible if you would place your ear close to the tube. If you were close enough you could discover even more sounds coming from the tubes, which played a piece together with the saxophone sounds. Because you only could place one ear at the time to the tubes the environment also played a role in the listening experience.

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Luisterbuizen Presented at Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2020 as part of BUI Walking Concert

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Het geleiden van geluid

conducting sound

A material is not only a sound source or a conductor of sound. It also has visual and spatial qualities.

As a researcher on sound I am used to listen to materials very closely. Out of curiosity I place my ear on weird spots and get surprised every time. Since not everyone is as focused on sound I asked myself: How can I let a spectator listen to the reverberation of a material? Can I make a reverberant space, to really be in a resonant space?

After drawing some sketches and gaining ideas, I started experimenting together with musician and composer Annabel Schouten. This research started very playful by simply putting plastic cones on our heads and listening to the sound inside the cone. Through the use of different materials, sound resonates in multiple ways. The vibrations, placed close to the ears, trigger an audible and spatial sensitivity.

We expected that metal would conduct sound to the head very well. But in fact if you connect a string to cardboard or a plastic hat it works much better. It it’s louder, clearer and more direct.

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Plastic

Cardboard

Metal

Klankkappen - Klankdrager

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Listening can be both internal and external It is receiving sound and sending attention It is an active form of focus opvangen en ontvangen Catching sound and receiving sound Catching is hearing receiving is listening Different materials conduct sound different Metal, wood, plastic, cardboard, paper, strings, wires, air, wind, water. All sound conducters There is a snaar and a klankkast By creating movement on the string by leaning back and forth with your body you can influence the sound.

Sound moves trough space, by listening you create a sense of location and dimension.

Through the connection of the string that is vibrating on material attached to your body, you can listen very closely on distance.

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Positioning the ear

I listen closely to conductive surfaces, to experience how sound travels trough it. I hear and feel the vibrations through the object or the surface.

Closing the other ear or opening the other ear has a lot of influence on how this sound reaches you and how you perceive it.

Feeling the vibrations of sound on my ear and skin trough contact with the surface makes me feel immersed in sound.

It’s not obviously that all spectators are used to place their ears to sound conductive material.

Together with my fellow ‘Klankdrager’ Annabel Schouten, I did a site specific research on how to conduct sound through space. We worked on location at the Havenloods in Utrecht where there is a massive metal construction outside. The first thing we did was listening with our

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ears on the construction to hear if it would transport sound from different spots on the grit. It worked if you placed your ear really on the surface of the metal pillars. It was interesting to hear the sound travel through from pillar to pillar as we were activating the six of them by ‘playing’ on them. We noticed that on every pillar it had a different quality.

To bring this experience to the spectator we created personalized listening spots. Since no one could hear the same we decided to create different experiences for everyone.

Some spectators were asked to close their other ear while the ear was placed on the pillar in their personalized (h)oorvak, others to leave it open. Others were asked to close their eyes while listening. Some were asked to look to a point outside of the grit. Some were not placed immediately on the surface, but connected with a cone and an iron wire.

We got back that the spectators really could listen to the environment while they were also listening to the construction pillars, but that they still heard it as sounds that didn’t belong to the piece. They needed a bit more composition as a guideline.

Also we noticed that comfort is important to feel immersed. To really surrender to perceive with the ears.

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Listening is interpreting Connecting the others to yourself Listening is remembering Listening is relating to context

Listening as a listening spectator can differ from listening a sound performer. Composer Aart Strootman explains this very well: “As a listener you are not listening to the repeats, but to where the music changes. The result is that there is something else at stake in the perceivers mind compared to what the musician is doing. The musician is very well aware of where you are in the score, but as a listener it can be quiet illusional”4 I see a link between what Strootman says and about “the Cloud” where de Joode talks about. As a spectator you need to be active to connect with the unity. Listening to the cloud again would help to connect. As a spectator you also need to listen in the now, to be able to connect with the cloud, unity.

As a listener you are a composer, what do I as a scenographer do to create this situation?

How can I create a strong and safe individual experience for a community of spectators?

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In Klankdrager we experimented with the active role of the spectators as being the sound conductors. They were playing and discovering sounds themselves, initiated and guided by us, so that they would feel safe. Still most of the spectators feel more connected to the work if they can surrender and don’t need to be active and take the initiative. But they enjoyed the playing mode. In the end we choose to make the experience more immersive by letting them just perceive the sound fully and giving them a physical touchable sound bath, where they could listen to sounds generated by us and by what was already there.

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Passersby 't Gras. een cafe. een leeg cafe. een leeg cafe vol met ‘t Gras. a cafe. an empty cafe. an empty cafe filled with

rommel.

we zijn binnen. buiten lopen mensen. voorbijgangers lopen voorbij. fietsers bussen autos razen we are inside. outside are people walking by. passerby passing by. bicycles busses cars racing

op weg op pad heen en weer we zijn al even binnen. het is een tijd waarin we niemand mogen ontvangen, waarin niemand binnen mag komen, waarin binnen binnen blijft en buiten gaan eigenlijk niet mag maar zo belangrijk is. time where we are not allowed to open our doors for others. inside stays inside outside is not binnen waarin je jezelf ziet, buiten waar je de ander ontmoeten zou. we willen kijken naar mensen die buiten, we willen binnen samen buiten zijn. inside, seeing yourself. outside where you are supposed to meet others. looking to others outside. inside wanting together outside. we plakken de ramen af met papier. we zien ze verschijnen als de zon op de ramen schijnt. we praten van binnen naar buiten. buiten praat naar mensen die doorlopen, mensen die voorbijgaan, mensen die oren in hun oren hebben, mensen die open oren hebben en denken hé wat is dat had ze het tegen mij, mensen die dat spannend vinden, mensen die nieuwsgierig zijn. covered windows. sunlight makes them appear. taking from inside to outside. outside talking to passersby. passersby with ears in their ears. with open ears triggered and curious. mensen kijken mensen luisteren is wat wij doen in 't cafe. mensen luisteren, mensen kijken. people watching people hearing is what we’re doing inside the cafe.

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het moment moment ik heb iemand overtuigd haar gezicht te vertonen, te luisteren, te spreken door de spreekbuis showing speaking listen een echte voorbijganger, ze durft, er is contact passerby contact wat vind je van het weer weather? beetje koud bit cold maar wel lekker zonnetje but sunny ja mag ik je silhouet tekenen? can i draw your silhouette? eh als je je hand op het raam plaatst kan ik je hand overtrekken, dan word je deel van deze tekening tracing hand oke er is nu alleen even geen zon, maar doe toch maar, ik denk dat ik het zo ook wel kan zien als je dicht bij het raam komt come closer kijk daar komt je hand te voorschijn appearing kijk kijk kijk de zon komt, je schaduw wordt zichtbaar shade visible dit moment moment nu kan ik je goed zien, jij kunt je ook goed zien see you see me vind je 'm mooi you like? deze lijn klopt niet hoor maar wel lekker zonnetje sunny

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Positioning the ear of the passersby

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Together with Kiana Dekkers I was discovering how we can get attention of spectators that are not spectators yet. They are just passing by.

How can we make them aware of them being outside, being part of something, while we stay inside.

This experiment took place in a cafe: ‘’t Gras van de Buren’, which was closed during the Covid-19 crisis. This cafe is located, as the owner said, in the most crowded street in Europe. During the lockdown everything is empty, people are still around, maybe bored maybe busy.

In the winter of 2021 we made a performative work where passersby became spectators and even part of the work. The people outside are triggered to come close. I noticed in earlier experiments that spectators like to interact with the sound if you move the sound source on different spots at the windows. For this work we couldn’t do that technically. But we found another way to let spectators interact with us. The light of the sun would play with their shadows. We could see them if the light shined on them, so we drew them to make them feel seen, to connect with them, more than just talking. They were surprised by the surprise that we were real, not a video or a computer.

We created a senistive interaction, activated by the sunlight, communicated trough the window of an empty cafe.

Listening is communicating Drawing silhouets of passersby to make the cafe look crowded. To feel connected to others, to be part of it.

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Framing moment

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a moment is where there is no time

Moment has a potential to a story, a narrative, a world where your imagination can go freely. In moment you can be surprised or get lost, it gives space to play. Playing without judgement or restrictions, improvising. To me this is the best situation to be in. Joke J. Hermsen describes this in her book Kairos5. Kairos is everything that is good for the human being. But you have to be alert to wait for the best moment and be ready to catch it. In this state of being, there is no clock time involved. The only form of time is movement. This makes everything possible. From this state of being you can create worlds and stories in your imagination just with the input gained by the use of all the senses. It doesn’t need to be literally a story. Just a car passing by and an surprising breeze with a recognisable smell can transport you into an imaginable story while staying connected in the moment. You have focus and attention and you have to surrender and be freed of expectations.

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Zon bij de Havenloods During the performance day with Klankdrager I felt completely freed from clocktime. I realized this when was waiting in my backstage spot, just behind the corner of the building. Behind the building there was a stroke of shadow, next to it I could stand in the sun and wait for my que to begin. After every performing round I had to move about a meter to stand in the sun because the shadow was grown. I wasn’t checking my phone and I wasn’t aware what time it was but I felt time moving, I could see time moving, I was moving with time. I was in moment.

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Framing to create a narrative

How can I let the spectator look at real things,that are already there, but let them experience a narrative or an imaginary world?

In the workshop I followd of Schweigman& I learned how important it is to guide the spectator.

It’s almost more important how you guide the spectator to what you show, than the thing you show itself.

If you create a certain focus for the spectator, by setting the mood, they will be more open to the imaginative world. They will be invited to associate and thereby create there own narrative and connect to it more.

Building up tension by closing one of the senses and then opening them and placing a thing to digest with a sense can be very intense. So there doesn’t have to happen too much. You just need to compose it in time.

Can I let people switch between listening, perceiving with their ears and with their eyes and maybe with their whole body?

By position the spectators on clear listening spots they already have a more focused way of listening. If they are comfortable enough and there are small things happening that they can perceive with their senses, they already can create an imaginary narrative.

During Klankdrager performance framed listeners included sounds from far out of the composition (for example tennis play) into the composition. But also what they were seeing, the clouds, the feet of someone passing by, played with their imaginable narrative.

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“The clouds were floating in the same tempo as the violin” - Cecilia Berghäll

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Closing words What I learned in my scenographic researc is the importance of moving moving and being moved moving to start moving to continue moving to make a point moving to float, to flow, to free to not know how to move when lost to freak out I discovered how to move and guide me and the other and how to be moved and guided, by the unexpected. the other and me guiding to be part of a moving whole that is what scenography is the only way to continue it, is to move together through space and time the only way to reflect, is to find a place of silence and listen to what comes for a while With every moment of silence I learn more about listening This research continues

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Inspirations: Besides my unlimited sources of inspiration : what is already there in the moment, I also got in touch with a lot of external inspiration. In this list you can find some sources I also visited, some have influenced my work more than others. I think it’s interesting to have this list so that I can always come back to it. The link is maybe not that clear, but they have a place in my mind, maybe something will refered to after five years.

Feel free to have a look if you want some inspiration as well you can find them online. these inspirations stay with me, made an impresso me.

ARTISTS Do Ho Suh Andy Goldsworthy Marjolein Boterenbrood Yannis Kyriakides Gabriel Paiuk Boukje Schweigman Lotte van den Berg Theatre group Verdensteatret

exhibition in Voorlinden ‘Home away from home’ documentary ‘Leaning into the Wind’

Dying Together

INSTALLATIONS Dick Raaijmakers ‘Geluidsgolven’ / ‘Soundwaves’ Elmo Vermijs ‘Geluidsspiegel’ Hans van Koolwijk ‘Klankkaatser’

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COMPOSITIONS Wilbert Bulsink & Rosa Ensemble ‘Oorspel’ Garry Hill ‘Mediations’ and ‘Critical Voices’ Alvin Lucier ‘I am sitting in a Room’ and ‘Memory Space’ Lars Greve ‘Rooms of Resonance’ Steve Reich ‘Pendulum Music’ BOOKS Thomas Serrien ‘Klank’ Joke J. Hermsen ‘Kairos’ John Cage ‘Silence’ Hans den Hartog Jager ‘Het Sublieme’ and much more

Notes 1

Serrien, T. (2017). Klank een filosofie van de muzikale ervaring. Houtekiet.

2

Cage, J. (1968). Silence - Lectures and Writings. Marion Boyars. page 8

3 Siemens-Brega, Z. (2019, 15 november). De moderne mens komt met oordoppen.

De Correspondent: https://decorrespondent.nl/10713/de-moderne-mens-komt-met-oordoppen-en-wordtlangzaam-overgevoelig-voor-geluid-van-de-ander/1615072842999-6f5de155 4 Strootman, A. (2021). Hidden Pulse: Hearing Unplayed Grooves. Gaudeamus |Podcast Curious Ears: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2NmVePdHfhuwvZqy0EhYFb?si=8N33bm8fToiCxIQmZtR9Ug

5

Hermsen, J. J. (2014). Kairos. Uitgeverij de Arbeiderspers.

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Colofon: Photos are from: Christie Bitar, Noa Schouten, Kasper van Dijk, Nulpunt and my own archive (contact me for more details) Thanks to BUI, Gaudeamus, Annabel Schouten, Nulpunt, Kiana Dekkers for the fruitful collaborations Thanks to Mees and Pipo for sharing walks and having good talks about everything Thanks to my fellow students and peers of MA Scenography 2019-2021 Thanks to the wonderful coaches and inspirators who intensively followed my research: Tjallien Walma van der Molen, Maze de Boer, Vinny Jones, Ruud Lanfermeijer, Henny Dörr, Nirav Christophe, Maurice Bogaert For contact and more info: Copyright © 2021 Elsa van der Linden 154

info@elsavanderlinden.nl

www.elsavanderlinden.nl

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