Feeling Soundscapes at The MAC, Belfast

Feeling Soundscapes is an experiential event to help us to reflect on how we feel about the sounds of daily life, drawing on the working knowledge of therapists, sound artists, and musicians.

This cross-border event is convened as part of the international, interdisciplinary initiative, ‘Psychoanalysis +’ and is taking place in partnership with the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival.

Description
We are surrounded by soundscapes (the sounds around us), and while each of us might share a soundscape with other people (in the city, for example, or when we walk around a supermarket or travel on a bus), we each have our own unique way of engaging with the soundscapes around us.

How aware are we of the sounds around us and their impact on us? How do we experience soundscapes emotionally and unconsciously? Why do we gravitate towards certain sounds while avoiding or rejecting others? In what ways might music and the creative arts and culture more generally be important for our mental health and wellbeing? How might sitting together as a group help us to reflect on the presence and significance of sounds in our lives?

This experiential event invites attendees to reflect on our emotional experiences of sound, drawing on the working knowledge of therapists, sound artists, and musicians.

We will begin by engaging in a sound bath, which is an immersive listening experience involving resonant sounds made by a selection of singing bowls, a gong, and a variety of instruments. We will then engage in a visual matrix; a gentle experiential, group-based method for helping us to become aware of, and talk about, the way in which sounds evoke thoughts and visual images in our minds, feelings, and sensations in our bodies.

The event will conclude with an informal conversation about our understanding of sound over lunch with practitioners in sociology, psychology, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, art psychotherapy, sound art, psychosocial studies, sound therapy, classical singing, sound design, and arts and mental health.

Who is this event for?
This event will be of interest to artists, curators, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychologists, sound therapists, creative arts therapists, psychiatrists, counsellors, musicians, singers, academics in the social sciences and humanities, and anyone who is curious about how and why they experience the sounds around them in particular ways.

Registration
Places are free but limited so early registration is advised. Participants are requested to register only if they are available to attend the whole event, as places are limited and this event makes use of a group experience.

Email n.giffney@ulster.ac.uk and send the following details:

• Why you are interested in attending this event
• What you hope to come away with afterwards.

Further information and full programme: https://www.artsandhealth.ie/assets/uploads/2024/09/Feeling-Soundscapes-Event-Brochure-09.11.2024.pdf

Feeling Soundscapes is organised by Noreen Giffney, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and a BPC Founding Scholar, who is a lecturer and a researcher at Ulster University, Belfast. 

This event is convened as part of ‘Psychoanalysis +’ and in partnership with the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival. It is co-sponsored by the ESRC Festival of Social Science; the Centre for Communication, Media and Cultural Studies and the Belfast School of Art at Ulster University; the Association for Psychosocial Studies; the Student Counselling Service at Atlantic Technological University, Donegal; and TESSA UN Ltd.