Sonic Meditation for Solo Performer

Steve Parker
Presented in partnership with Co-Lab Projects

(For Pauline Oliveros & Alvin Lucier)

“Sonic Meditation for Solo Performer” reimagines the college marching band as a tool for sonic meditation. The project examines themes of healing, injury, and labor in NCAA football, drawing from legacies of sonic therapy, including 12th c. abbess Hildegard von Bingen’s liturgical songs, Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening practice, Anthony Braxton’s radical marching bands, and Guadalupe Maravilla’s Disease Thrower sculptures.

The installation works as an immersive musical composition featuring an ecosystem of automated sonic sculptures made from salvaged marching band instruments. The installation is activated by a viewer or performer wearing an EEG headset. As the participant realizes the text score, the EEG device measures and transmits electrical brain activity. The data generated by the participants’ brain waves are translated in real-time to realize a multi-channel composition played by the instruments.

This project was generously supported by the Music Academy of the West Alumni Enterprise Award, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the Art League Houston.