Whilst sitting & listening to some enthralling presentations at the Design Indaba 2018 this week I made voice sketches of every speaker I listened to. It was an interesting experience / experiment. Being very engaged in what was being said I allowed my body to draw what I was hearing. The result of this was a series of sonic sketches that portrayed, in many ways, a type of sonic signature. No two sketches were alike although certain sonic patterning was similiar (see my Instagram here).

However, there is one sonic sketch that stands out for me & this is the one of Ini Archibong. He started his talk by sketching his life before his current success, and spoke about not having wanted to live earlier and had thought about taking his own life. When he mentioned this, I could feel a myself fast-forwarding in space & time and entering his sonic field in quite a different way to all other previous speakers. I was unprepared for this and quite taken aback by the felt trajectory forward. At the same time I could feel that the sketch being drawn was also different to the others..

Although it is not new to me it has left me thinking that deep-listening, as a form of empathy, creates an entrance into the field of the Other. And, that there is a tangibility to this experience which I am beginning to notice in the sonic patterning.

All very exciting!

#designindaba #iniarchibong #sonicsketching #sonicpatterning #empathy #deeplisteninh #deeplistening