Audrey Chen Workshop & Takeaways

Last week, our visiting practitioner, Audrey Chen, spoke and also provided the opportunity to attend workshops; focusing on improvised sonic performance. In practice, Audrey focuses on using her voice as her main instrument. She has synthesized a language of sounds she produces with her instrument; using the whole spectrum of her diaphragm, phasing two and from the mic creating distinct sounds which she performs in an improvised manner. With this, she sometimes uses electronics to layer into her performance but prefers to have her voice lead her practice. Coming from Baltimore with a classical music background and then moving to Berlin to pursue experimental sound, Chen spoke of her journey to create her practice into something to sustain her life from. This left me thinking, pertaining to my practice; there is an environment and community for literally everything, no matter how niche, you just have to find it. With classical training in voice, I found it inspiring how she shifted herself onto her own path with her instrument, shedding herself of this traditional methodology. I often struggle believing that I can function in these sorts of environments without any traditional training, but in fact Audrey has shown me that even if you do have that sort of background, you don’t need it.

In the workshops, Audrey pushed all of us to bring in some sort of instrument in order to perform in this improvisational way. With this, I luckily was able to perform with people I am comfortable around which pushed me to be almost weirder. I used my voice, which normally would never be my choice (I forgot to bring anything else), but with this, I was pushed hard outside of my comfort zone. From this, it broke down a lot of my intimidation to perform in any given manner; my group and I pushed each other further to perform and try things out and somehow still managed to find a consensus of when to end, which is hard in improv. Putting myself into a performing environment has been difficult in the past, so now I can move forward just knowing that I can, even in an improvisational environment. Audrey mentioned finding places that actually commit to funding the arts, for example; moving to Berlin to pursue her practice. Knowing this and potentially moving on from London, I can take this into account when selecting where I want to settle next; somewhere that appreciates these sorts of practices.

In this coming year in London, I hope to hone my portfolio even more than it is now, for this sort of practice is what attracts me and I only hope to be able to find myself in Audreys position.