Ideation #2: Sound Bath

Moving forward with our spatialization and specialization, I continue meeting a minor bout of artists’ block of the sort. I used to take pride in my conceptions of projects but for this one, in particular, I just can’t get anything out. I know I wish to move forward in the performance area (and specialization is perfect for this practice), so what issue can I approach that interests me and can be expressed through performance, audio paper, song, etc? As I try to resolve this setback, my mom reminded me of something, over the last couple of years, I have attended both spiritual and abstract avant-garde sound baths hosted by different veins of artists, and every time I’ve come back, it’s been like a recharge for myself (I attended one in 2020, see further down my blog). Moving forward, maybe I can find and address a topic to perform through a “sound bath” performance. Based on deep-rooted science and sacred geometry, sound baths are used in meditative and therapeutic settings to not only relax the body and the mind, but some believe sound can perform physical healing. Today, sound baths can be seen more regularly here due to the popularity of the practice moving west; causing some problems in terms of white-washing and not respecting the origins and history. An example of this disrespectful nature is, the concept of the ‘Tibetan’ singing bowls have no historical relation to its’ mystified practice. In the 1970s the American musicians Nancy Hennings and Henry Wolff came into possession of a Japanese ‘rin’ singing bowl, was told it was Tibetan, and capitalized off of the practice while creating an entire mysticism to Tibet that historically is inaccurate due to the movement and popularity in the western-world “new age spirituality.” These ‘Tibetan singing bowls’ commonly sold may have origins in the Tibetan area, but were not used for anything besides cups and bowls. In the proper practice of sound-healing, tools and instruments such as singing bowls, chimes, gongs, and different frequencies are used for their specific purpose during the bath. Each instrument’s purpose is to hit a specific frequency of which can be used to heal, relax, manifest, etc., therefore, I could use this method to study these frequencies, create them, and run them through for a multichannel performance.

Kilikita, D.M., and J. (2018). Everyone is talking about sound baths – here’s why. [online] Stylist. Available at: https://www.stylist.co.uk/beauty/crystal-sound-bath-gong-meditation-mindfulness-relaxation/198360 [Accessed 25 Oct. 2021].

Gould, W.R. (2020). What Are Sound Baths? [online] Verywell Mind. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-sound-baths-4783501.

Grimes, S. (2020). Where Did “Tibetan” Sound Bowls Really Come From? [online] Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Available at: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/tibetan-singing-bowls/.