Starting as a participatory experience with a small group of  deaf people, the project emerges as a group performance with percussionist João Dias in which objects, performers and the public share a space. Various elements are places to explore proximity, sound – touch relationships as well as aural diversity. Situated in outdoor and indoor spaces at Quinta da Cruz, the project explores various forms of engaging with situated sound. 

Typically linked to the ear and hearing, music can be felt in various forms. This performance is developed with deaf participants to explore these various ways of feeling music. Instruments and objects are activated to come into vibration with sound waves of varying frequencies exploring the sonic spectrum and its impact on the physical behaviour of resonating objects. 

The touch by deaf participants works as a modulation of a resonating object as opposed to creating sound from scratch. This modulation is like a shaping of sound, akin to a potter’s wheel in which form emerges through the subtle action of touch. The resonance of objects has a sonic manifestation though above all a tactile and sometimes visible one. 

The interaction between percussionist and participants explores aural diversity which is universal – we all hear differently, physiologically and cognitively.

The project is supported by the technical infrastructure of SARC: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music, Queen’s University Belfast, of which Pedro Rebelo is director. In particular, this project has a technical hub the SARC Mobile, a mobile studio that works as audio visual control for field recording and Spatial Audio and immersive listening.