{
fl0wr@liå
○ sWitches
Interactive installation inspired by the maypole—we critically reflected on the term “fertility” by inviting participants to weave their voices into the sonic-archive installation with their unheard thoughts about sexuality.
2022
Format workshop, interactive installation, and performance
Media spoken word, electronic textiles (stretch sensor, Teensyduino, textiles), wooden and clay sculpture, stones
Software Ableton Live, Teensyduino
Concept, creation, and technology sWitches (pamela varela, Ines DeRu, ella hebendanz)
Installation with georgina pantazopoulou
Sound and technology with Myra-Ida van der Veen
Workshop participants (co-creators) and performers Carlota Garcia, inaya bsau, georgina pantazopoulou, Sophia Bulgakova, Viktoria Arvayova, Veronika Matkovska, Nursinem Aslan, Christine Hvidt, Cherry Kim, Viktoria Nikolova, Ines Borovac, pamela varela, Ines DeRu, ella hebendanz
Drumming during performance by Camila Chebez
Special thanks to Yun Lee, iii, the NEST team, melanie bonajo, Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg, Erika Sprey, and KABK Wxtch Craft Studium Generale :)
Exhibition design by Carolin Gieszner from touche-touche
Exhibited at
“every moment a junction” NEST, The Hague, NL, 2022
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The maypole dance is a ceremonial folk dance performed around a garlanded pole with hanging ribbons and widely celebrated throughout Europe. The ribbons are woven by the dancers in complex patterns, an action that symbolizes the union of “feminine” and “masculine” energies. Originally, the dance was a spring rite to ensure fertility, typically performed on May 1 or in midsummer festivities. Nowadays, patriarchal traditions such as making a girl be the “May queen” are still carried out.
Sources: Britannica, Cambridge Dictionary
In fl0wr@liå, we deconstruct these notions by transforming the maypole’s purpose.
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We invited a group of participants (which unintentionally but appreciatively aligned to be all women or FLINTA*) to take part in our tECkhnO-craft workshop at instrument inventors initiative, where we gathered and shared stories on intimacy (inspired by women’s circles), did movement research, and learned to work with electronics and digital sound practices. The participants of the workshop co-created the installation with us and were also the performers at the opening.
For the technology, we used stretch sensors in combination with the micro-controller Teensyduino. The stretch sensors are made of conductive rubber, so when you stretch them, the resistance changes and so does the amount of voltage that is passing through the sensor. We could, then, modulate the volume of the installation.
Each participant braided their own ribbon. The recording of their own voice with whichever story related to their sexuality they wanted to tell was embedded within the stretch sensor.
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We created our own maypole collecting our unheard stories into a sonic archive, where our voice was woven into the ribbons, and when pulled, heard. During the opening, we danced to our stories, and during the exhibition, the visitors of the installation were able to listen to the stories by pulling the ribbons.
In the performance, we danced the remade, chaotic, and un-patterned maypole dance with our own ribbon, weaving our story with the stories of the others. These stories stayed during the duration of the exhibition and could be heard by the visitors. This for us was a way to give voice to the oppressed voices of our sexualities.