Biosphere IX
Paranoia: An immersive musical spectacle where mental illness takes center stage. Each composer
He created a work based on a previously researched mental illness. The works are electroacoustic in an 8.1 system, with possibilities for the use of real instruments, video, lights, and dramaturgy.
Prelude
For Jews, true peace is omnipresent. The world may be engulfed in confusion, and yet a person can still be at peace within themselves; inner peace is independent of external circumstances. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, derives from shalem, which means completeness, perfection, and fullness. Hence, when Jews greet one another with "Shalom Aleichem" ("Peace be upon you"), they are truly expressing a wish for inner peace. Because all the pleasures of the world are merely a path to inner peace. This work aligns with this thought, in relation to mental illness, and becomes a kind of invocation of inner peace for each of the courageous souls who choose to journey through and transcend it in this life. On the other hand, the work also uses the spiritual content of the syllable Om, which is a sound and one of the most sacred mantras of Dharmic religions (such as Hinduism and Buddhism), being considered the first sound (vibration) coming from the deity and/or supreme Universal principle that originates everything and that in turn describes the supreme “spiritual reality” of each one.
Depersonalization disorder
Verse nube is a composition that seeks to create transitions between instrumental sounds until they become a less tangible, more flexible, and more artificial accumulation of sound. Depersonalization is a dissociative disorder where a contrast is created between the inner self and the body, which can be perceived as an alien mass. In this inner split, there are phases where the thinking self and the projected self are experienced; thus, within that suffocating veil, one might see a cloud, blurred, scattered.
Schizophrenia
This work presents a personal vision, based on real data, of what schizophrenia is; drawing us into a tranquil story that gradually becomes distorted as we delve deeper into the human psyche, which, at the end of the day, is full of perceptions that may not be real but that we all (in some way) possess to protect ourselves from life in society. Acknowledgements: Rodrigo Henao, José Eduardo Gallego, Dafne Manuela Giraldo, Catalina Hoyos, Mateo "the composer", Ana Sofía Valencia.
Psychosis
If the boundaries between sanity and madness are so blurred, what separates us from the possibility of suffering from mental illness? Not everyone can be certain of trusting their own thoughts when the human mind is so fragile. Our intellect can break down and plunge into the deepest madness. People suffering from psychosis may experience hallucinations, chaotic thoughts, or be haunted by strange voices. Likewise, there have been reports ranging from sudden personality changes to outright dementia. This sound experience places us in the abyss where those who lose all contact with reality fall. An interpretation of the fragmented thoughts of a psychotic individual surrounded by an atmosphere of confusion. Acknowledgments: Rodrigo Henao and Miguel Ángel Correa.
Depressive disorder
The WHO says that around 280 million people suffer from it—making it the primary epidemiological phenomenon in the West—and yet, few have been able to decipher, with the right words, what depression actually is (perhaps because it seems unnecessary). I won't be one of those few... Medically, it's a mood disorder associated with mood swings, inherent to anger, frustration, or sadness; but those who suffer from this condition have little to no use for such technical definitions. To be more daring, I've thought that it's like looking at the wrinkles on your hands: the longer you look, the more creases seem to reveal themselves. The more we think about depression (outside the medical paradigm), the harder it is for us to understand it. What is depression, beyond just another mental illness listed in the DSM-5? According to Ángel Aguirre Baztán, it is nothing other than the "vital collapse" in which one suffers throughout their entire being. I say it's the psyche's natural (raw and stark) response to life's circumstances. In simpler terms, it's the suffering inherent in living...
Alzheimer
How certain are we of memory? When memory begins to fade and we feel frustrated by not knowing if we are in yesterday, today, or when? This work seeks to portray, through sound, the degenerative process that Alzheimer's generates in the human mind.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Toc Toc Zarabanda Toc Toc Toc portrays what a typical day might be like for someone with internal obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Based on a real-life experience, it depicts a series of intrusive (unwanted) obsessive thoughts related to religious beliefs and/or causing harm, followed by compulsions that momentarily relieve the anxiety generated by these intrusive thoughts. Each person living with OCD experiences it differently.
Autism spectrum disorder
Dissociative identity disorder
Symptom: "The individual exhibits restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities..." Considering one of the symptomatic characteristics of autism, the work aims to provide insight into the external and internal perceptions of those who suffer from this disorder.
It is a musical based on two real-life stories of people suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), also known as Multiple Personality Disorder. A story was created describing a patient with nine personalities, written by Estefanía Roncancio, and the vocals are entirely recorded and sung live by Ana María Franco.
Dissociation
Today, more people struggle with their identity, traumas, and self-perception within society, their own being, and their reality. This work alludes to that feeling of unease some people experience when they don't recognize themselves and their reality. Through synthesis techniques, different recordings of a violin and a duduk are transformed to support this feeling of the alien and unrecognizable, sometimes making these instruments sound completely different from their original concept, while occasionally retaining vestiges of what they are "supposed" to sound like.