Repercussion

2022

lecture-performance for voice and electronics

Close-up photograph of dry brown leaves scattered on grey gravel, shot at ground level with shallow depth of field
Still from film for Repercussion at IMMA, Dublin, October 2022.

Repercussion (2022) is a 20-minute lecture-performance that investigates how field recording can help us rethink our relation to so-called ‘nature’. The piece investigates the nonhuman sound field of the IMMA site through electronic soundscape.

Nicholas Brown giving lecture-performance
Nicholas Brown performing Repercussion at IMMA, Dublin, October 2022.

Recent writings on planetary challenges highlight the need to move beyond a ‘technology will save us’ approach by rethinking our relation to the nonhuman world.

The title—Repercussion—has two meanings. It calls attention to human impact on nonhuman things whilst invoking the reflection or repetition of a ‘percussion’—a recorded bio/geophonic sound, perhaps, as it is reiterated through human perception and aesthetic engagement.

The lecture-performance enacts a commingling of human and nonhuman in the context of IMMA’s situated ecology, mediated by digital sound recording and reproduction technology.

Still image from Repercussion by Nicholas Brown
Image from 'Fontanelle' sequence. Repercussion (2022)

Repercussion was created for the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s inaugural eco festival Earth Rising and premiered on October 23, 2022.


Technical Requirements for Performance:

  • Four full-range loudspeakers surrounding performance area (FL, FR, RL, RR at corners of performance space).
  • tall table/lecture-style podium
  • HD projection system with HDMI access
  • TRS cabling and 3 × 240VAC power outlets to table