Desire(d) Paths

by Colectivo Satelital 


Communication

What are some solutions to communicating with each other from a place of care, familiarity and somatics? In this quad we explore humming, writing letters to oneself, and creating memorials for spiritual communication and healing.

Listen to this compilation of recorded hums and notice how it feels in your body:





According to the author of Humming, Suk-Jun Kim, “Humming is inviting. In an instant, humming puts us into a socio-acoustic cocoon as it erects a wall of intimacy and emotion” 1, and to Joseph Jordania, author of Music and Emotion: Humming inthe Beginnings of Human History, “humming is one of the oldest, and one of the mostpractically important, elements of humancommunication...humming is human ‘contact calling’ and that it had a very important practicalrole in the normal functioning of human groups.” 2
Humming is the first sound we hear in the womb, it is a vibrational frequency that resonates with most humans regardless of language and has cultural significance around the world from Buddhists’ Om and other religious chanting, to Kid Cudi’s signature melodic hums interweaving his raps3, to our colloquial “hmm” signifying that we are thinking or listening in response to another in a conversation4.
Humming is an activity we do when we don’t feel threatened, and are able to feel relaxed. What if during arguments we could respond with gentle hums to signify that we were listening and make others feel a sense of safety? What if humming became a somatic exercise to ground ourselves when we are activated by a traumatic event?

1 A Music Expert Explains Why Everyone Loves Kid Cudi’s Hums, Genius News. 
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ_cpLwzBbw
2 Jordania, Josehph. Music and Emotion: Humming in the Beginnings of Human History
  http://symposium.polyphony.ge/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/02.Joseph-Jordania.eng_.pdf
3 A Music Expert Explains Why Everyone Loves Kid Cudi’s Hums | Genius News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ_cpLwzBbw
4 Humming
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummin



Record your own hum and send it to us! It can be of your favourite song, of a familiar tune, a recreation of a machine-made sound, etc. We will compile a composition made from participants’ submissions and exhibit it in our upcoming show at Lakeshore Arts in 2022.

        ︎ Send us your hum




Communication Quad Workshops:


Writing a Letter to your Immigrant Self
Using an interactive game-like approach, together we retrace our past selves as we journey back through time in the form of writing. We ask you to reflect on when you immigrated to your current home and the relationships you’ve developed between here and there, now and then while acknowledging the uprooting that occurs when relocating.
August 7th, 1:00 - 2:00 PM

︎︎︎ More info and registration



Creating a Portable Memorial
A sensory workshop through which we engage the five senses to remember family members far away, or no longer with us. We will build our own sensory memory boxes via a series of activities from creating a digital collage to recreating objects with play dough, so that we can return to them whenever we are missing our loved ones.
August 18th, 7:00 - 8:30 PM

︎︎︎ More info and registration