Sound workshop with words
The white stripes of a zebra crossing offer a bit of protection to cross a road. Which words help to get to the other side in another kind of risky situation? Or to meet a person whose language you do not speak?
Zebra crossing workshop uses as a tool a sonic carpet specially constructed for this purpose by Alejandro Olarte. During the workshop the participants find meaningful words or phrases and record them with different tones and effects. The words are connected to the sonic carpet as audio files and then played by stepping on its white stripes. The workshops are also small excursions to the possibilities of collective play with human voices around the myth of a magic carpet. Ours flies with voices and words.
The workshop can be realized in different variations for different audiences. All the workshops search for a possibility of an encounter in challenging situations. Most of the workshops have been conducted by Alejandro Olarte and Outi Korhonen, the builders of the concept, focusing on the musical qualities of the voice, words and the sounds they consist of. A variation of the workshop. with theatre musician Romulus Chiciuc, focused more on the expressive qualities of each voice. In the Finnish Museum of Photography as part of the Festival of Political Photography, the workshop was conducted with Muhaned Durubi, poet and visual artist from Iraq, who translated sound related words proposed by the visitors into Arabic. Both versions were recorded and placed on the carpet.
Zebra crossing workshop has been organized with the Finnish name Sanojen suojatie in cultural centres Stoa (2015) and Annantalo (2016) and in The Finnish Museum of Photography (2016).
Video trailer of the workshop concept (in Finnish)
Video sample of children playing with the Zebra crossing carpet that talks with their own voices , Annantalo, 6.3.2016.
Sanojen Suojatie / Zebra crossing team:
Alejandro Olarte, Outi Korhonen
Guest artists
Romulus Chiciuc (workshop at Annantalo)
Muhaned Durubi (workshop at The FinnishMuseum of Photography)