Witnessing the drone of Tarek Attui’s hybrid sculptural performance inner organs At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, I noticed a family of four (two young parents and two young children) sitting quietly on floor pillows in the rotunda. The younger child, not even two or three years old, was strangely calm and focused on her mother’s lap. He watched the musicians walk from station to station, mesmerized and mesmerized. Performers adjusted metal tubes, scattered balls, and bells onto a thin vibrating membrane and reached inside the modular instrument’s various compartments.
Tarek Attui’s “Organ Within” (Guggenheim Museum, New York)
Source: M Way
Understanding sound as more than just an auditory experience, Atui’s work explores sound as a tactile and visual experience. As I slowly climbed the slope of the rotunda, noticing the changes in acoustics, I was struck by another way to experience this work: as a mindful, walking sonic meditation.
in How music works, David Byrne describes the close relationship between architecture and music, whose composition and experience are shaped by the space in which it is performed. Musicians write songs for the spaces they play. Site-specific performances within the spiral rotunda architecture created a unique meditative sound experience.
Sound has an ancient association with meditation and healing. Sound healing has ancient roots in cultures around the world, from the indigenous tribes of Australia, who have used the didgeridoo as a sound healing instrument for more than 40,000 years, to ancient spiritual rituals such as singing bowls in Tibet and the Himalayas. I have. Sound meditation is a type of focused meditation. One of his increasingly popular types is something called a “sound bath,” in which he uses Tibetan singing bowls, quartz bowls, and bells to guide listeners. These practices focus on the theme of how the experience of sound is manifested through the physical vibrations and frequencies of touch as well as hearing.
Although science has not yet caught up with our understanding of how sound heals, current research is promising. A review of 400 published scientific papers on music as medicine found strong evidence that music has mental and physical health benefits that improve mood and reduce stress. In fact, rhythm (more than melody) in particular can be effective in reducing physical pain.
A study published in Evidence-based integrative medicine journal We have found that an hour of audio meditation can help people reduce tension, anger, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and increase their sense of mental well-being. Various Tibetan singing bowls, crystal singing bowls, gongs, tinsha (small cymbals), dorjes (bells), didgeridoos, and other small bells were used in acoustic meditation. The main instrument used in 95% of the sessions was the singing bowl. People who had never done sound meditation and people who had done it before alike experienced a significant reduction in tension and anxiety afterwards.
There are various theories that attempt to explain why sound experiences are associated with deep relaxation and physical pain relief.
One theory is that sound acts through vibrotactile effects throughout the body. Sound can stimulate contact fibers that influence pain perception. In one study of patients with fibromyalgia, 10 treatments (twice a week for 5 weeks) with low-frequency sound stimulation improved sleep and reduced pain, with nearly three-quarters of participants found that they were able to reduce the amount of painkillers they took.
Sound-based vibration therapy has been proven to help people suffering from arthritis, menstrual pain, post-surgical pain, and pain from knee replacement surgery. Sound-based treatments have been shown to improve mobility, reduce muscle pain and stiffness, increase blood circulation, and even lower blood pressure.
Another theory about the benefits of sound is based on the concept of “binaural beats” or “brain entrainment,” which hypothesizes that hearing certain frequencies can synchronize and change your brain waves.
Electrical activity in the brain is displayed in the form of brain waves, or rhythmic repeating frequencies. These rhythms can be measured using a device called an electroencephalogram (EEG).
There are four categories of brain waves, ranging from frequencies that occur during the most intense activity (beta) to frequencies that occur during the least activity (delta). Different states of wakefulness and consciousness in different parts of the brain produce brain waves of different frequencies.
meditation essentials
- Beta waves are the fastest type of brain waves and occur when the brain is active and mentally engaged.
- Alpha waves occur when the brain is in a non-awake state, such as when you are resting after work or meditating.
- Theta brain waves are associated with daydreaming and the rapid eye movement (REM) dreaming phase of sleep. Theta brain waves occur when you are driving on the highway or on a long run. This type of state is often associated with periods of flowing ideas and creativity.
- Delta brain waves are the slowest and are associated with deep, dreamless sleep.
The premise of binaural beats is that the brain synchronizes brainwave frequencies to the Hertz difference between the sounds played in each ear, leading to deep relaxation states associated with beta waves or theta, like a meditative trance, depending on the frequency. It means that you can. wave.
Although researchers are still trying to understand the mechanisms behind sound’s healing effects, sound in the form of vibration therapy and meditation offers potential therapeutic benefits with few or minimal side effects. Atui’s works show us the joy of being in the active presence of sound, fully perceived visually, tactile and acoustically.
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