Shuoxin Tan, Natalia Molina Bohórquez

The term ‘acousmatics’ refers to the tradition which tells us that the Greek philosopher Pythagoras gave his lectures from behind a curtain, whereby visual information was withdrawn off the screen and the audience could concentrate on listening. Listening to acousmatic music is not a static process as if the listener is aware of something hidden behind such a curtain. In the case of acousmatics, the sonic events reverberate through the curtain, beyond where they actually are produced, meeting up in the listener’s inner ear and the space the listener is in. So the questions arise: How real is what the listener hears? To what extent could what is heard be (un)consciously perceived by the listener? If we take an instrument as a primitive body, are there other ways of resonating through this body? How does the performer’s physical movement influence the sound?