Sonic M.O.B. (Movement of Belonging)

Don’t get me wrong; i LOVE co-producing The Deconstruction and other collaborative-making events. But the other truth is, the Artist in me has her chin propped on her palms, staring out the window at all the other kids getting to play outside. i want to be creating along with the participants i am supporting. The Artist vs. The Producer, my perpetual inner tug-o-war.

With The Deconstruction 2020, i decided to try Both! How could i respond to the event’s theme (Deconstruct: Distance) as an expansion of my Movement of Belonging multi-project platform, while including all the participants, meeting the 48-hour deadline, and fulfilling my producer duties?

 
 

Introducing Sonic MOB (Movement of Belonging), created during The Deconstruction 2020.

Mission: To create a chain reaction of sonic movements around the planet (!!!)

Desired outcome: A video that links together the sonic movements from every team, in a sequence that wraps the globe

It’s my first time making a video, and first time using Adobe Premiere! i learned so much, and of course there are tons of aspects i’d want to improve — but it was such a good time connecting with each team in this way, and having them connect with one another by replicating sonic movements.


DO-IT-YOURSELF GUIDE!

The recipe is simple. i’ll include it below in case you’d like to make your own Sonic MOB! If so, please share it. Seeing other Sonic Movements of Belonging would bring me hyper squeals of zeal.

What is a “sonic movement?” For this project, it is one movement with a sound

  • The movement has a clear beginning and ending, and can be replicated

  • The sound can be anything made by the voice/body.

  • No longer than 3 seconds!

What do we do?

(No action needed until you receive a video file.)

Pretend you are Team C.

Team C receives a copy of Team B’s video. The video would be Team B doing this: 

Clap > Team A sonic movement > Clap > Team B’s new sonic movement > Clap

Team C then would copy the last sonic movement (from Team B) and add their own. You exclude/ignore Team A’s sonic movement.

Your sequence looks like this:

(less than 10 sec!)

  1. CLAP with your hands

  2. Copy Team B’s sonic movement

  3. CLAP

  4. Make a new sonic movement (in response to Team B’s sonic movement)

  5. CLAP

Send video asap to facilitator. (Note to facilitator: i found it easier to be the bridge between each team, but also we had an urgent deadline, honored email privacy guidelines, and were located across time zones on 4 continents. Alternatively, you could send the sequence of contributions with contact info, and each participant could email their video to the next on the list, making sure to copy facilitator so that you have all the mini-videos to produce the final piece.)


When our bodies move, our minds can move. And that’s when we transform solo movements to social movements, and redefine MOB culture to be a Movement of Belonging.

 
Kate Spacek