Sound Touch by Damien Ricketson

"Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears"— Pauline Oliveros

What do you hear when you listen with your body? Imagine music that bypasses your brain and penetrates your skin. A music that plays upon your nervous system like an Aeolian harp, as though you are a set of sympathetic strings stirred into resonance by distant touch.

Conceived by composer Damien Ricketson, Sound Touch explores vibration and the body. Join percussionist Niki Johnson as she guides you through a musical massage that will leave you attuned to the world around you.

Niki Johnson is a percussionist and composer-performer whose musical practice incorporates contemporary classical repertoire, improvisation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and performance art. Sally Blackwood will direct, with Fausto Brusamolino on lighting design and Benjamin Carey on sound design.

Sound Touch is a playful and provocative exploration of music’s capacity to affect one’s character, open to guests of all ages. Traversing labyrinthine references from ancient acoustic myths and conspiracy theories to emerging medical technologies and sonic weapons, this enveloping experience is a sensory lesson in the vibratory nature of existence and the delicate art of listening.

Sound Touch has been made with the support of the Australia Council for the Arts and the University of Sydney.

N.B. There are two sittings per night for this event: 6:30pm & 8:15pm