Silence (2021)

category:
Documentary

date:
October 2021

realisation:
Spatial Sound Institute

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Silence, an immersive sound installation by Cecilia Nercaseeau Gibson, is featured in this short film. The piece is a multi-layered exploration where she creates and holds a space of immersive listening and sharing in the stages she suggests towards the notion of Silence: External-Horizontal, Internal-Vertical and Divergent.

Silence, she reminds us, can be uncomfortable, but never without its subtle power and impact that may appear in our awareness and interstices of everyday experience where we can allow it in and experiment with it.

Based on John Cage’s writings, Silence is treated as a wide sound, a space where it is possible to identify the elements that compose the whole and each having equal importance. The project aims to encourage the senses and takes listening as the primary mode of experience — to be aware of what is going on around you and inside you, and to be able to make observations and move your attention fluidly in order to stimulate and sense creativity and inspiration. It's about creating space and meaning through self-awareness, listening and being aware of the present and then working with what emerges, to create.

The first stage, Horizontal-External Silence recreates and portrays a natural soundscape in which the fundamental lines of the space are sketched and the individual fills in the blanks with their own images. It's an invitation to investigate the ingredients that make up this area of stillness using your senses and body. The second step, Vertical-Internal Silence involves acknowledging oneself as a sound element with expression and existence within this silence. It's a self-reflection and reflection, an invitation to meditation and mantra, all of which take place in a resonant setting within the constructed space, where the mics are turned on, providing an intimate depth to the soundscape. After passing through the previous phases of Silence, the third level, Divergent Silence, is a subtle invitation to interact for personal inspiration. It's a place where you may express yourself and become a part of the natural world as an imaginative and creative human with relationships, reflections, ideas, and intuition. We need tools that allow us to change and feel alive.

Credits
A film by: Alifiyah Imani as part of the Spatial Sound Institute artist residency programme (2021)
in collaboration with Cecilia Nercasseau Gibson

Interviews, Recording and Editing: Alifiyah Imani
Camera: Alifiyah Imani and Bence Mladin
Sound piece: Cecilia Nercasseau Gibson
Sound Mixing and Mastering: Vladimir Razhev
Sound Editing: Alifiyah Imani
4DSOUND Recordings and 4DSOUND Technician: Vladimir Razhev
John Cage, photographed by Guido Harari, Bologna, 1979
Special thanks to Ana Amorós López
Produced by: Spatial Sound Institute