Sonic Body

The Sonic Body is an audio-installation that uses interactive technology to create an orchestra of the human body. Developed as a collaboration between four interdisciplinary artists and a heart surgeon, the installation brings together art and medical-science to reveal the unheard sounds of the body.

The installation, created by artists Harry Neve, Thomas Michalak and Anna Orliac, appears on its exterior as a neutral cylindrical pod. 

Once inside however, the audience is immersed in a contrastingly tactile and multi-sensory space filled with sculptural fabric forms that evoke the shapes and contours of inner body parts. The audiences’ movements and contact with the installation triggers a symphony of spatialized sounds to be played that have been recorded from within the body. (4 speakers and a sub)

The Sonic Body was inspired by the traditional practice of listening to the body to diagnose illness, and began as an investigation into the scope of sonic activity that exists within the human body. Medical professionals were consulted to help understand which parts of the body make sounds and why, and various methods were used to record unusual and unheard sounds from deep within the body’s organs, muscles, bones and veins. These included conventional medical equipment, such as a stethoscopes, as well as more unorthodox devices such as a hydrophone (normally used for recording aquatic-life) to capture sounds in liquid, an anechoic chamber to record microscopic external sounds, and equipment to detect and re-tune the body’s ultrasonic activity, which is usually inaudible to the human ear.

The material gathered, and relayed via the installation, reveals a spectrum of bodily acoustics beyond that of just stomach gurgles and heartbeats. There is a lung that sounds like a baby crying, an intestine that sounds like a rainforest, and there is even the anatomical sound of a female orgasm that sounds like high-pitch whistling. The project aims to create a unique way of thinking about and experiencing the body, through sound.

I am fascinated with this installation.  It lets the person immersed in the environment of the pod listen to what it may sound like in their body.  I think it is a wonderful concept and well thought out, everything from the shape of the pod to the quality of sound used.  I think it would be interesting to see how people react to the experience, I would love to try it out.  I think it could attract a lot of attention at festivals.