- SoundsTheatre at Iran Artists Forum Tehran; August 2021
“
On the desert path the plain is piled high with thorny bushes. The tip of the foot, through the open-mouthed hole in the shoe, cries out in pain from the thorns. The mind says: Go!
There goes
Ought to
A weighty burden of books, both read and unread, bends my shoulders. Yet the mind urges: “press on”.
He had been planning this for a month in his mind. Now he wants to pay attention to his mind.
A half-meter-wide, dirt road, like a dusty serpent, slithers between the low hills. Its gaze fixed on the road’s end, it yearns… From the Zolfaqari pass to the summit of Malek mountain, there are 172 boundary markers, three miles apart. I must go the contraband route.
The mind says, “You must journey through the desert… Go on… You know that…” When you’re on the path, you’re not asleep! You see! You hear! You feel! You feel the sense of existence! You’re safe from the arrows and shrapnel of demons
He steps onto the road, taking long strides. For an hour, he walks forward into the fiery rays of the yellow bullets. The burning of his skin and eyes from the hot, shrilling sweat weakens him. He stops and squints, glancing around. A gray shack catches his attention. He runs toward it. A rectangle of straw and tin, the size of a twenty-meter room, becomes his resting place.
From objects within the shack he senses the smell of his chosen path being misguided, smuggling…
He leaves the shack, hides behind his mind the burning of his skin and eyes, quickening the pace.
Suddenly, a sense of disorientation weakens her steps…
Where am I?
How far have I come…
Am I in Iran or Afghanistan…
What if I encounter border guards…
You must find a shortcut….
A verse of Saadi comes to his mind…
Whispers it behind his breath:
Better go astray than idly sit by… ”
Story by Nadereh Azizi Nik || Translated by Sina Shirinvar
SoundsTheatre met a group of artists from different cultural backgrounds in Tehran; the result was an interesting series of sound events… events which were met by a short story of Nadereh Azizi Nik and an animated visual art video of Neda Taheri.
Conducted by Vahid Eftekhar Hosseini
به راه بادیه
نادره عزیزی نیک
دشت از بوته های خار دار انباشته است. نوک پا از میان سوراخ کفش دهان باز شده به نیش خارها آخ میگوید ذهن میگوید: برو!
و جلو میرود. باید بگذرد.
بار سنگین کتابهای خوانده شده و تازه مانده، شانه ها را خم کرده، باز هم ذهنش دستور میدهد: برو…
برنامه اش را از یک ماه قبل در ذهن ریخته بود. حالا میخواهد به ذهنش اهمیت دهد.
از میان تپه های کوتاه، جاده ای به عرض نیم متر همچون ماری خاکی رنگ چشمش را ریز میکند. نگاهش به انتهای جاده . شکوه میکند…
از دهانه ذوالفقاری تا نقطه ملک سیاه کوه ۱۷۲ نشانه مرزی با فاصله سه مایل وجود داره من باید از راه قاچاق برم…
ذهن میگوید: باید از راه بادیه بروی… برو… میدونی که
وقتی تو راه هستی خواب نیستی! میبینی! میشنوی! حس میکنی! حس وجود داشتن! از اصابت تیر و ترکش شیاطین در امان بودن!
وارد جاده میشود. قدمها را بلند برمیدارد.
ساعتی در میان پرتوهای آتشین گوله زرد رنگ جلو میرود. سوزش پوست و چشمش از عرق داغ و تند طاقتش را کم میکند. میایستد .با چشمان ریز شده اش چرخی به اطراف میاندازد. سوله ای خاکستری رنگ توجه اش را جلب میکند. به سمتش میدود. مستطیلی از جنس پوشال و حلبی به اندازه یک اتاق بیست متری محل استراحتش میشود.
از وسایل داخل سوله بوی بی راهه بودن مسیر انتخابی اش را حس میکند. قاچاق… از سوله بیرون میآید. سوزش پوست و چشم را پشت ذهن پنهان میکند. قدمهایش را تندتر برمی دارد…
ناگهان حس گنگی قدمهایش را سست میکند….
کجا هستم؟ چقدر از مسیر را آمده ام؟
ایران هستم یا افغانستان؟
اگر با ایست مرزبانها برخورد کنم…
: باید راه میانبر پیدا کنی…
بیتی از سعدی به یادش میآید…
زیر لب زمزمه میکند…
به راه بادیه رفتن به از نشستن باطل
وگر مراد نیابم به قدر وسع بکوشم
The synthesis/contexture, “SoundsTheater”, points to a translinguistic quality of human experience, somewhere beyond the linguistic definitions and historical boundaries which have fragmented human experience into isolated islands, concealing its natural unity beneath the waters of history. In a vague definition of ‘Theatre of Sounds,’ it can be said that it is neither a method nor a style, but an attitude, in which the temporality and spatiality and of sensory experience are of great importance. Imagine a language in which no word is repeated, and for defining or naming anything, or for expressing our states, emotions, and feelings, we use a word that has never been used before and will never be repeated afterwards. Therefore, in the course of the birth of an experience, we encounter the constituent elements not as ‘factors’ but as ‘dynamics’ that are something different each time and traverse a diverse spectrum of sensory perceptions. If we consider within an experience this characteristic of tempo-spatiality this aspect of not fitting into the category of one single sense (which is secluded mostly in the realm of theory), what seemed static and dead becomes alive and dynamic. Perhaps this characteristic of multisensory and fluid experience in the ‘Theatre of Sounds’ can also be found in this poetic statement by Rumi: “my words can be seen if your eyes become ears”.
n / Free workshop.
Session 2:
“Beyond corporality” in sound, a fundamental concept for the possibility of the SoundTheater / Intonation: from primitive cry (outcry) to fascination with the impossible melodies of nature / Practice and brainstorming about individuals, personal experiences in sensitivity to intonation / Intonation systems and their connection to sound-producing objects (instruments, etc.) / Practice and brainstorming about the relationship between singing and subjective expression with intonation / Intonation: sensitivity and meaning / Imagining the sound of an ancient mythological instrument: logical (harmonic) relationships and actual embodied relationships, the existential dimensions of acoustic beating / Free workshop.
Session 3:
Unknown systems and new sensitivities / Culture as a porous system and the reality of multicultural events / Intonation exercises and listening to new intervals (microtonality) / cantus of darkness: confronting the “unknown monster” / Ending: sound gives thanks to subjects, or the predetermined destiny of a SoundsTheater / Free workshop / Coordination for the event.
- SoundsTheatre performance at “DA House of Theatre” Tehran; September 9th 2024