Audio from Reasonance FM : Blacklists and Happenfilths No.5
A Resonance FM podcast recorded in summer 2011, created and hosted by composers Neil Luck and Frederico Reuben. This programme emerged from a sonic experiment developed as an iteration of Vahla's choreographic work In Preparation. Exploring the dancer's body in preparation as a form of audio choreography, the project used sensors and microphones attached to the body to transform movement, breath, and exertion into sound. The sonic environment, created by Reuben, was combined with Luck's rearranged and remixed version of Bach's Contrapunctus XIV.
Although Vahla participated in the development of the experiment, the Resonance FM broadcast took place while she was in South Africa. The programme featured a conversation between Neil Luck, Frederico Reuben, performer Emma Redding, dramaturge Maryann Hushlak, and Dr Sara Chin, reflecting on the embodied, choreographic, and sonic dimensions of the project.
To excavate this project is to reconsider the sonic possibilities of The Gym. The experiment shifts attention away from the visual organisation of training and preparation, foregrounding instead the acoustic textures of exertion, breath, rhythm, and bodily labour. In doing so, it opens up an understanding of the gym not only as a site of physical conditioning but also as a space of listening, composition, and choreographic encounter.