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Pic by Hanneke Wetzer


Ωma
○ sWitches


    
     Performance about the concept of resistance: an electrical, political, and physical force—we go into a movement dialogue where our bodies produce sound when they join.

2022 (v1)
2023 (v2)
2024 (v3)

Format interactive performance
Media electronic sound (DIY oscillator/synthesizer/cracklebox), spoken word, dance/performance
Software Ableton Live or none (pure hardware)

Concept, creation, sound, and performance by sWitches (pamela varela, Ines DeRu, ella hebendanz)
Choreography (v2) with Lia Pavlidis 

Special thanks to Gokay Atabek, Hilde Wollenstein, and Venus Jasper :)

Exhibited at
“STONEORGY” by Venus Jasper, MU, Eindhoven, NL, 2022 (v1)
“Sensing Sun; Softening Sounds”, JOY Space, Berlin, DE  2023 (v2)
Synergy Festival, Amsterdam, NL, 2023 (v2)
La Nature Festival, Vielsalm, BE, 2023 (v2)
Monument Festival, Numedal, NO, 2024 (v3)



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    Ωma is ohms: resistance—an electrical, political, and physical force. Channeling the flow of conductivity running through our bodies by using a DIY synthesizer, we connect to each other, thus, influencing the sonic landscape by making electricity audible. Ωma is a sonic performance dedicated to the fusion of polarities and the communal rite of togetherness. 

    In the first version, we start the circuit through wet piles of soil and close it when grabbing our hands; the sound changes depending on the amount of voltage that is going through our bodies due to the resistance they create. Consequently, we invite the audience to join our fortress—the sound changes further depending on the amount of people that join the circle. The work is an audible representation of the concept of resistance in all its meanings. 

Ωma is a work that transforms. Every year, we create a new version, yet the principle is always the same. We use our bodies to transmit electricity and create resistance in all its forms. 

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    In the second version, we call on the elements to contain a circle of electrical charge, we dance in between the battle of polarities. Our movements are marked by the sensation of gravitation and repulsion, synchronicity and opposition, connection and resistance. Closing the circuit in moments of touch while hearing the voltage transmitting through our linked skins, we open up the circle for the audience and invite them to join our stronghold. 

Ωma is an initiation ritual; it is a coming-together activity for an experience that we will all go through together, so it is a performance that invites the audience for the start of something (an event or an evening). In parallel, it is about the political resistance aspect of celebrations, gatherings and the rave which, consequently, intertwines with the electronic sounds of a DIY synthesizer consisting of a simple circuit for an oscillator that makes touch audible (connected by open cables on our skin). The work navigates the three definitions of “resistance”: political, electrical, and physical (of attraction and repulsion by movement).

We are stronger together.






Ωma v1
Pics by Hanneke Wetzer



Ωma v2
Pics by Clara Roca-Sastre
Ωma v2
Pics by Ada Kopaz





Ωma v3
Pics by Tim Schûtze and Filip Wozniak Kolber

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