Aruna Ganesh Ram founded Visual Respiration in 2012, after making a performance by the same name, where she told human stories of digital photographs. She is presently the Artistic Director of Visual Respiration. She also uses arts practices to create sensory learning experiences.
She is a trainer where she engages with students in the craft of performance making. She holds an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Aruna's work goes beyond the linear and she generates performance material through research and embodied practice. The audience is part of the making process from the word go, given that the work is intimate and immersive in nature. She is interested in the performance to present multiple perspectives without resorting to the single narrative.
Aruna thinks in images and composes her work as a set of visual movements with sensory touches. Her work over the last years plays with ideas of space, character, narratives and sounds. She is very keen on the audience not being a passive spectator and believe that theatre as a medium is for the LIVE to come Alive – sensorially.
At Wisp Kollektiv, Leipzig, she will develop ‘Sonic Identities’ – an aural performance experience of gender.
Coloured and Choosing - An Immersive Gender Sound Installation
Coloured and Choosing was developed as part of the bangaloREsidency-Expanded in collaboration with Wisp Kollektiv, Leipzig.
In this blindfolded 3D sound installation, the audience experiences the personal and the political in a gender space. The space is layered with over 30 sound sources, each transforming from the personal voice to the political, inviting the audience to tune into their gender frequency.
I landed at WISP Kollektiv at the end of July and I was quite curious about their work and very eager to meet with all of them. In my opinion, Wisp is truly an interdisciplinary arts organisation. While Felix was busy installing cricket sounds in a cave, Paul & Emma were trying to programme gestures into multimedia visuals and Nina was rigorously documenting every part of the work. My initiation into the 3D Sound Lab was exciting and intimidating. I think after the first session with Felix, I understood the possibilities of 3D sound.
My work at the residency involved creating a dramaturgical narrative as a starting point to the sound experience. Felix and I mapped out various possibilities of sound sources and audience placements. This helped me think of the soundscape as layers. Hence the narrative also evolved in layers from the intimate moving towards the political.
My own gender and life experiences, coupled with Hindu mythology, found voices and interviews became the source of material for the project. Along with the support of my sound collaborator MT Aditya, I composed a sequence of moments that included judgements, perceptions, poetry, slice-of-life events, love letters and interviews of fellow artists, friends and acquaintances. Felix and I spent time in the studio placing the compositions in a 3D environment.
We invited the audience to experience the audio performance. Their feedback was valuable and made me understand how the performances were individualised by the audience and how each member’s experience was unique.
And yes, we had fun dosa parties and German spaetzle parties and chill on the farm parties too as part of my stay in Leipzig. A big thank you to Goethe-Institut Bangalore for enabling this process. Immensely grateful.
