[Last modified: October, 15 2024 11:19 AM]
While wandering around UCL campus, I found myself drawn to a nearby open park – Gordon Square. Amidst the usual bustle of students, I noticed a group of about ten people spaced out in pairs, standing with a deliberate distance between them. Their movements were subtle, their gazes locked on each other as they chanted in a monotonous tone that seemed to resonate with the surrounding space. The rhythm of their voices, though steady, varied slightly as it echoed across the park’s natural acoustics.
I became intrigued and I approached cautiously to get a better sense of what they’re doing. I spoke to the leader of the group, who explained that these were drama students from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), experimenting with the different ways outdoor spaces alter vocal sound. Their lesson involved exploring how reverb – normally studied in enclosed spaces indoor – interacted with open air, wind, trees, and distant buildings. By spacing themselves out and chanting, they could observe how sound waves travel and fade, so when they perform in different spaces and stages, they could adapt more easily and therefore improvise better.
This spontaneous encounter made me aware of the intersection between art and environment. The chanting, though repetitive, felt ritualistic, as if they were enacting a shared experience with their voices. Their focus on the environment’s acoustic properties reminded me of how the body and sound interact with space. It made me reflect on the dynamic relationship between human activity and the natural or built environments in which it takes place. As I’m a musician myself, this is also something I experiment, by finding my voice through recording in studio, performing in doors and outdoors. The surrounding atmosphere, people’s energy are all elements that influence performance. In relation to anthropology, this is something they study in terms of the relation between space and social behaviour.
As the group continued their exercise, I lingered, observing how their bodies seemed to respond to the subtleties of sound. The drama coach explained how in performance, such an awareness of sound and space could transform a scene’s emotional impact, connecting both actors and audience in unseen ways. Through this process, the students were not only refining their craft but also engaging with the world around them in a tangible, immediate way, an exploration that seemed both technical and profoundly human.