SONIC SCULPTURE - IN DEVELOPMENT

Listening Furniture is a collaboration between sound artist Alberto Ruiz Soler and choreographer, Charlotte Spencer. Listening Furniture is an immersive sonic experience. It arises from the desire of making a reflective space where sound can be felt as well as heard by exploring listening that is not limited to the ears, but also the rest of the body. Listening Furniture defends the need to rest, reset your body, and take time-out.  

An array of surface speakers are embedded into a purpose-built sculpture made from wood with a soft surface. These speakers translate a 10-minute choreographed soundscape into vibrations which allows the whole body to experience the sound rather than just listening via the ears. You might lie down, sit at the edge, place your hand on it, or simply observe. You can experience it alone or with a friend. The full haptic-sonic experience is only available through direct bodily contact. 

Inspired by magical realism, where ordinary objects possess strange capacities, Listening Furniture treats the object as a threshold, an entry point into another layer of reality or an inner realm. For some, it feels like sinking. For others, like floating. This work isn’t about finding answers; it is about your attention, your body and whatever you carry quietly within yourself. It mirrors the shape of memory: shifting, sensory, and sometimes difficult to name. 

The artwork is designed to be installed in galleries and public spaces, offering the opportunity to briefly step away from the busyness of daily life and slow down.

Listening Furniture is part of the wider collection of artworks, we are all memory bodies.

CREDITS:

Concept & Sound Design: Alberto Ruiz Soler
Dramaturgy: Charlotte Spencer
Produced by: Charlotte Spencer Projects
Manufacture: Alex Moran
Outside Eye: William Fairbrother
Support: Sussex University, South East Dance and Arts Council England