Jessa Mockridge
Sonic Gut Meditations for Conference Call : a Toolkit (2020)
This is a toolkit for a workshop that brings participants together to try out eight group listening exercises that are loosely based on Pauline Oliveros’s Sonic Meditations (1974) and adapted for video call at a time when it’s not safe to meet together in a room.
The exercises attempt to expand what is allowed to be heard on a group call and propose the idea of listening with the whole body, especially with the gut as a psychic organ. A politics of listening with the gut bloats what is hearable within the sonic architectures of headphones, throats, zoom calls, bedrooms, rectums, Vimeo, fantasies and the hiss of recordings.
Any video call software should be fine, and it works best if you’re a group of between 2-8 people in different locations. Performances should take between 1 hour to 1 ½ hours.
