Public Intimacy by Sylvain Souklaye
.jpg)
By : Sylvain Souklaye
Public Intimacy is a motion- and site-specific sonic experience that reimagines the relationship between sound, space, and human presence through binaural techniques. Public Intimacy explores how collective intimacies emerge within public environments, transforming them into sensitive narrative spaces.
At its core, Public Intimacy is both a system and a philosophy—an evolving performance framework that investigates the power dynamics within the “politics of noise.” The piece examines how sonic hierarchies dictate spatial and social interactions by capturing and manipulating live environmental sounds, bodily movements, and architectural acoustics. Who is heard? Who is silenced? How do different bodies claim or resist space through sound? Public Intimacy makes these questions tangible through improvisation and real-time sound processing, constructing an immersive and hyper-localized auditory world. Binaural recording techniques heighten this experience, amplifying the nuances of human interaction and the spatial resonance of the site.
Rather than adhering to a fixed composition, Public Intimacy adapts dynamically to its surroundings. Participants become active agents in shaping the soundscape, blurring the boundaries between performer and audience. Each whisper, breath, and movement contributes to a fluid interplay of sonic textures, fostering a deep sense of shared vulnerability and sensory dialogue. In this way, the project transforms public spaces into sites of collective intimacy, where architecture ceases to be a static backdrop. Instead, it becomes a living, breathing entity that reveals the often-unnoticed tensions of sonic power.
This presentation will delve into the methodologies behind Public Intimacy, exploring the role of improvisation, binaural sound, and spatial engagement in crafting new modes of auditory and performative experience. By addressing the politics of noise, the project invites audiences to reconsider how power operates through sound, questioning whose voices shape our environments and how deep listening can become an act of resistance and reconnection.