Perceptual Archaeology

So first… Alex

Many years ago, I first met Alex Bulmer after her performance in an outdoor Winter show on a cold snowy night. There was a certain moment in the show where she gathered up her voluminous skirt and ran across the park, fast and fearless, snow all around. There were two others, running with her, ostensibly there to catch her if she stumbled. Apparently, Alex never fell throughout all 19 performances; while the two others apparently fell quite regularly. So… Alex… I have come to understand over time, is a performer and writer with a distinct sense of theatrical physicality.

 

Reading Alex’s original travel essays, which are the roots of the play we are making and of this digital space, spawned a broad curiosity to more deeply understand Alex’s relationship to travel. And of being blind. I started digging around in the dirt so to speak, to reflect on assumptions about sight and blindness, and the ways we perceive and make meaning of the places and spaces around us. And of course, sound was central to much of the digging. Following strands of thought, I read, researched, listened, and of course shared many satisfying, rambling conversations with Alex.  

 

So… Hearing

At first, thinking personally about perception and sound in particular, I noted that I’m fairly sensitive to sound. I respond physically and dramatically to hearing loud, sudden or suspicious noises and sounds. Even when I see where a sound is coming from and what’s making the sound, I generally still jump or flinch.

 

At the same time, I love hearing; the musicality of spoken words. Even ideas have a sort of music to me. Sometimes I don’t hear what people mean when they talk, I hear more the sounds and the rhythms of talking, of conversation, of thoughts.

 

And… what exactly is perception?  

How exactly do we perceive sound?

 

I discovered there is a difference between sensation and perception.

 

Sensation is a physical process. 

 

Our sensory organs, like our nose, our ears, our fingers etc. respond to external stimuli, like heat from the stove or the scratching sounds in the wall.

From that response, there’s a very quick conversion of one form of energy to another.

From sound waves to electrical stimuli in the brain.

 

Then once you start making sense of stimuli, begins the more psychological process of perception. Perception involves our experiences.

Our experiences actually influence how we make meaning of sensations.

 

And… Sounds

I was in Stratford with Alex, in the summer of 2021 and on a particular street, late at night we heard a very loud, insistent, large community of crickets. We stopped for a long time to listen.