breathing.systems
Sat 25 April 11:30, 12:40, 13:50, 15:00
How does a voice tell the story of its body when it is heard through a network?
An immersive performance where one voice is shared across moving bodies - blending classical vocals, spatial sound, and choreography.
breathing.systems is an immersive performance in which a custom-built wireless speaker system is worn by the performers, turning each body into a moving source of sound. The piece creates a communal, fluid, sound body, dispersing the artist’s voice. Each performer constitutes a networked node – a collaborator, a carrier, a member of a temporal community.
Drawing on Neo-Gregorian and harmony singing traditions, and shaped by the textures of queer club sound, the performers move through and around the audience. You’re not just listening - you’re inside it, surrounded by a living, breathing chorus.
About the artist
Nik Rawlings (they/them) is a counter Tenor vocalist, composer and artist often focussing on spatial works. Their work considers networked presence, polymorphous bodies and vocal transformation. Situated between song, collective performance and dance, their practice explores the complex relational and spatial quality of voice through expansive live processing, modal chant and operatic techniques.
They have performed and presented work internationally, including at LUMA Westbau, Sonica Festival, Glasgow’s Pipe Factory, Trinity Center, IRCAM Forum, B’Sarya Alexandria and Skissernas Museum, Arnolfini and The Cube; while receiving radio plays on BBC 3’s Late Junction, NTS and Noods. Most recently they released work on the Goddezz compilation Enochia, sang on exlRuth’s Accidental Meetings release Romeo’s Fall; and recorded with double bassist Caius Williams for Assembly Festival at Somerset House.