Nathalie Harb delivers a 20-minute presentation showcasing ideas bridging sonic and spatial practice, and their implications for the politics of urban life. She presents provocations based on her own work, The Silent Room, and elaborates on sonic equity and shelters within the public space.

The Silent Room. Attention turns to the way cities sound, from experimental music and acoustic engineering to urban anthropology. But who decides what is wanted and unwanted noise? We live in an environment where we find ourselves subjugated by a constant flux of information and distraction, both visual and sonic. The Silent Room is a public space where citizens are insulated from outside noise and other sensorial aggressions. Many of us today live in urban environments where we are subject to a constant flux of information, both visual and sonic. Silence is increasingly a luxury for the most privileged - data mapping has shown that the poorest parts of the city are the worst affected by noise pollution. The Silent Room responds to this context: it provides a cocoon-like space, isolated from the city’s noise, for all citizens, regardless of background or level of privilege. It makes silence and rest available to everyone. The Silent Room advocates silence as a form of resistance, an act of cleansing needed to reclaim ownership of our thoughts and ourselves. It is a public private space, a shed where dwellers can freely rest, individually, for a brief moment in a cocoon-like space, acoustically isolated from the city noise.

The presentation is part of a conversation with artists Felipe Sanchez and Felipe Duarte, moderated by Cat Ferguson on Wednesday 12 June 2019 from 4:30 pm until 6:00 pm.

PQ Talks Curatorial Statement: PQ Talks engages critical debate of what performance design and scenography was, is, and could be, and aims to reflect trends in contemporary scenography: raising questions around collaboration, techniques, and artistic processes, their underlying principles, sources, and innovations. Discussion panels, round tables, keynote presentations and ten-minute flashtalks grouped in broad thematic blocks seek to offer a space for diversity and variety of artistic and academic ideas, their conceptions, communities, cultures, and traditions. Through discussion, wonder, doubt, provocation, analysis, theorization, and celebration of the creative, intellectual and cultural riches of scenography in our world, PQ Talks taps into the untried and the indeterminate – looking for blind spots, and things that we don’t know rather than repeating what is known; exploring not only the image, the artifact and the message, but also the unknowns, the possible, the uncertain, the once-to-be and the playful.

Theme: Transformation
Transformation is the core of the creative process. Process of surpassing individual personality realizing the power of shared awareness and the collective vision of a group. Inspiration through the best collaborative performance design and architecture, where experience and deep understanding play a major role in its successful realization. Focusing on in-depth explorations of the possibilities within the limitations of each task, where the limits determine new styles, engender new forms, and give impulse to new creations.

Curators: Pavel Drábek & Barbora Příhodová
All PQ2019 exhibitions and projects are curated, which means that participation is by selection through an open call application process.

Speaker: Nathalie Harb

A Non-Competitive Project
Formations is a non-competitive project. Though curated for participation, it does not have prize categories.

Venue: Křižík Pavilion E

Talk Hour: Wednesday 12 June 2019 from 4:30 pm until 6:00 pm

PQ Talks is a series of lectures, discussions, and presentations that explore contemporary trends in the expanded field of performance design, scenography and performance space architecture, with and about leading theatre makers, performance designers, architects and artists. Artists may also present workshops or lead professional development sessions through PQ Studio.