New Normal – The Listening Bed #Immanence Project Series 1

A transdisciplinary participatory project based on getting into bed and being interviewed – part of the developing Immanence Project.

The New Normal; the space after life changing circumstance is the phrase used to discribe this project. This ‘new normal’ itself, does not represent as a solid terminology but rather experienced as subjective existence.  It is the base point on which this participatory, social sculpture hangs. It is an invite, a doorway to to investigate how culturally people deal with such intensities such as trauma, loss and hardship and how participatory art can express the essential need for reconnection to important parts of our existence.

‘The crack is where the light shines in’ as Lenard Cohen so aptly sings. Is it possible that our struggles can lead to greater insights, understanding, learning and progression?  And couple this be one of the most essential acts of becoming?

In Dr B Mowson’s exegesis; Existence as a state of Immanence sees a direct link “to produce material and understandings…  [through] audio/visual installation art and immanence. Immanence describes a subjective state that emphasises an embodied sense in time and space. Philosophically, this emphasises immanent notions of the self as a being in a state of becoming”(Artbase feb 2009).The idea of becoming, of experiencing and how culturally we cope and behave with difficulties has been influenced both by traditions and habits of our external environment. The Listening Bed has thus become a vessel to reflect on the ascendancy of cultural customs.

Using interactive social sculpture and audio recordings became a tool in which to research reflective environments. Taking transdisciplinary practice to assess existence as being in a state of becoming and using the integration of intelligence, emotion and the senses as a starting point is the main conjuncture for  the Immanence Project. It is subjects, such as death, grief, and trauma, that are explored in The Listening Bed as an redemptive force.

Without the person, the piece is defunct,  observation and experience in this case outweighs the theoretical constructs often revealing the unexpected.