Soft Encounters,Boiled Dreams

About

About the work

Soft Encounters, Boiled Dreams was created for SITU8: hotel, a site-responsive collaboration presented throughout the Alex Hotel in Northbridge, Western Australia. Curated by Geordie Crawley and Serena Chalker, the project brought together four choreographers and four composers to create new works responding directly to the architecture, atmosphere, and daily activity of the hotel.

Because audiences experienced the work through silent-disco headphones, the choreography and music had to negotiate a unique contradiction: how could listeners remain connected to the surrounding environment when the natural acoustics of the hotel were largely removed? In response, Kane Tenadii-Hay and I transformed the sounds of the building itself—the coffee machine, teaspoons, scraping chairs, tables, and other everyday objects—into the primary musical material.

The resulting score unfolds through six interconnected vignettes moving between field recording, musique concrète, and electronic music production: entering the space; cups and coffee machine; coffee table and pads; chair scrapes; scrapes, metal plate and vase; and finally the transition outdoors.

The work emerged through an intensive two-week collaborative development period in which the choreography, music, performers, and architecture evolved together. It was supported by Tura New Music, STRUT Dance, LINK Dance Company, Edith Cowan University, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and the Government of Western Australia Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.