Quanto pesa un suono?

Participative Performance / Workshop

In Japanese culture, the koan is a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment. The workshop therefore aims to explore some illogical and absurd aspects in relation to the practice of listening. Beyond its physical manifestation, sound lives in other places:  within the imaginative and in memory. Through a meditative exercise, participants will be asked to probe their imagination, experiencing sound in a totally different way.

Koan: how much does a sound weigh?

Look for two stones, one visibly much larger and heavier than the other.

Find a quiet place and sit comfortably on the ground in a meditative position. Close your eyes.

Take the stones in your hands, open your arms with your palms facing upwards.

Now concentrate on the different weights of the two stones and feel their forces acting on your hands and affecting the balance of your body.

Now imagine a very heavy sound, suggesting the idea of heaviness, then locate it in the hand where the light stone is. This sound should re-balance the different weights you feel in your hands. Alternatively, imagine an extremely light sound and feel it in the hand where the heavy stone is, trying to balance the weights.