Abstract
The INTIMAL App© is a mobile application that synchronously senses people’s walking rhythms in distant locations and then rhythmically sonifies these with the user’s chosen audio frequencies. Taken altogether, the perception of breathing and walking rhythms across space and time creates an embodied telepresence. At the level of content, the app has provided first-hand narrative accounts about the migration experiences of Colombian women living in Europe. These stories are meant to elicit a response from the listener, allowing for a path to be built out of new relationships that emerge between voices and sound frequencies. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, this article reflects on the social and environmental “sonic proximities” that emerged out of the listening experiences using the INTIMAL mobile app with ten women based in Bath, United Kingdom. I suggest that the embodied and interactive simplicity of the app stimulates connections that support the gradual transformation of environmental and social distance, thereby providing a sense of individual and collective agency.
Recommended Citation
Alarcon Diaz, Ximena. "Sonic Proximities: Locating Oneself and the Others Within a “Migratory Journey”." Journal of Network Music and Arts 4, 1 (2022). https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/jonma/vol4/iss1/2
2_AudioOnlyPujaConColores_fragmentoINTIMAL.wav (58403 kB)
3_INTIMAL_Documentary2021-Up to 4K.mov (389739 kB)
4_IntimalAppVimeo - HD 1080p.mov (543673 kB)
Included in
Art and Design Commons, Communication Commons, Computer Engineering Commons, Music Commons