Kaite O'Reilly, Denise Armstrong and Alison Jones. With sonic artist Dave Handford.

A work-in-progress commission from the Liverpool Biennial Live Art Festival, November 2004.

Silent Rhythm is a collaboration between writer/director Kaite O'Reilly, dancer Denise Armstrong and visual artist Alison Jones. The project is informed by the female artists' sensory impairments, using them as a source of inspiration for creativity.


Silent Rhythm is an installation, incorporating smell, sound and vision, with performative and interactive elements, working together to create a unique, multi-sensory experience. The work has two distinct but interrelated parts:
the installation and an evening performance/intervention.

The installation is visual, audible and olfactory, utilising natural products which are used both as live sound and scent in the installation, and as graphics in the video. This is combined with fragmented audio description and layered, textured sound, using the dancer's body and environment as sound source.

The performance within the installation uses British Sign language and Deaf choreography - harnessing 'the inner tempo, the silent rhythm.'

There is also an interactive aspect, where participants/audience explore the initial stimulus sensory exercises used by the artists to create the work


Collaborators
Choreographer/Performer Denise Armstrong
Visual artist Alison Jones  
Text/director/audio-describer Kaite O'Reilly
Sonic artist Dave Handford  

With thanks to Arts Council England; Faith in One City; AHRC; Exeter University’s School of Performance Art and Bluecoats Art Centre.


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