Experimental and Participatory Sound and Performance Installation
They Scared We sacred
They Scared We Sacred is a participatory sound and movement performance composed to re-center the Sacred in the spirit of resistance that runs through the history of Blackness and Indigeneity in the Americas and continues to speak through our multilayered acts of anti-colonialism. Audience members were invited and equipped to participate in a call and response with the performer’s movement: reading/re-telling stories of ancestors across the diaspora who knew that our flesh, blood, and spirit are sacred, and revolted against laws rooted in the same fear of our power that still governs how society polices Black, Brown, and Indigenous existence. This performance was staged at the Glass Curtain Gallery and NYCH Gallery in February of 2020. The live sound recording was to be included the Petty Biennial archive. The sound archive was lost during the pandemic.
infusion has its origins in June of 2019, with the culmination of my sponsored artist residency with High Concept Laboratories in Chicago. My time during my residency focused on sound as keeper of stories, of language, and of frequencies.
LOVE HERTZ WAS THE TITLE OF ONE OF THE FOUR PIECES DEVELOPED. IT BEGINS WITH THE WORK OF DR. MASARU EMOTO, AND HIS WATER EXPERIMENTS THAT HAVE BECOME CLOSE TO WHAT MANY MIGHT DESCRIBE AS A CULT CLASSIC. HIS EXPERIMENTS SUGGESTED THAT HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS CAN IMPACT THE MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF WATER. IF WATER CAN BE IMPACTED BY THOUGHTS AND WORDS, WHAT OTHER VIBRATIONS COULD IMPACT THE WATER’S MOLECULAR STRUCTURE? CONSIDERING DR. EMOTO’S WORK, I ALSO ASK “WHAT WOULD BE THE EFFECT OF CONSUMING WATER THAT HAS BEEN INFUSED WITH THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND OTHER SONIC TONES?AS A RESPONSE AN ORIGINAL 5 MINUTE COMPOSITION CONSISTING OF SPOKEN TEXT CONTAINING WORDS OF AFFIRMATION, A TONE OF 639 HZ, AND 528 HZ. THESE TONES WERE CHOSEN BASED ON THE MANY STUDIES THAT EXIST COVERING THE EFFECTS OF VARIOUS FREQUENCIES. THE FREQUENCY OF 639 HZ HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A FREQUENCY OF PURE POSITIVE LOVE AND INTERPERSONAL HARMONY, WHILE 538 HZ IS ASSOCIATED WITH BEING THE “LOVE FREQUENCY” AS WELL AS CELL REGENERATION. THE RECORDED COMPOSITION WAS PLAYING INTO 5 GALLON GLASS JUG FILLED WITH WATER. IT WAS PLAYING THROUGH A CONTACT MICROPHONE THAT WAS MADE BY HAND THAT WAS PLUGGED INTO TO A SINGLE CHANNEL SPEAKER. INDIVIDUAL GLASSES WERE FURNISHED, FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WITH THE SOUND MATERIAL THROUGH DRINKING OF THE WATER.
Orasyon
Orasyon is the second iteration of Infusion, incorporating cymatic communication with healing frequencies of hertz, loving words, song, dancing feet, healing color, and the power of the drum.
Jennifer Ligaya 