Ideation #1

Joining studio praxis, I hope to expand my practice into different areas that challenge me. Currently, my interests lie in creating sonic experiences that frame my general ideation/conceptions which will hopefully result in a performance of sorts. At the moment I do not have a set idea for a project for this class, but over the summer I began reading a book called Sacred Sounds by Ted Andrews (I have not finished yet) which is a general study over the cross-cultural practice and topic of sonic healing. Cultures spanning from Navajo Singers to African griots to German Meistersingers (the list goes on) have used sound as a tool to heal, to entertain, and to share. Methods of song, speech, and storytelling are the basis of these bardic practices but tools of sound have also been used to inhibit ways of healing. Native American shamanism used rattles to shed old energy from peoples’ auras and Elisha (in biblical times) used a harp to induce a prophetic state, these are just a few examples. Relating all of this and wondering how I can further my practice, I began to look into my background and the cultures I derive from, which would be American/Balkan folk-bardism. Poet-bards of this practice spread all the way from the Balkans to the eastern edges of central Asia and were not contained to one language, ethnicity, or religion. This is my research for this topic this far, but I enjoy doing this research and feel I could potentially do a lot with this topic. I am thinking in the direction of doing some sort of sound performance making reference to the significance of epic-poems in their oral/sonic culture dating back to the fourteenth century.

(I am looking into reading The Epic Formula: A Balkan Perspective to further my research in this area)

WILLIAMSON FA, S. (n.d.). Ashiqs: Travelling Bards of Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Iran. [online] EastEast. Available at: https://easteast.world/en/posts/105 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2021].

Bizraelli, C. (2021). A Sonic Approach to Participatory Action | norient.com. [online] norient.com. Available at: https://norient.com/constanza-bizraelli/sonic-approach-participatory-action [Accessed 7 Oct. 2021].

Mirjana Detelić (2015). Epic formula : a Balkan perspective. Belgrade: Institute For Balkan Studies.

Andrews, T. (1992). Sacred sounds : magic & healing through words & music. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications.