‘You know, 528Hz is supposed to be the love frequency,” says artist Evan Ifekoya, striking a metal wah-wah pipe tuned to exactly that pitch, a fraction above the C, one octave higher than middle C. “It’s supposed to be able to transform the body on a cellular level. And, OK, how can you really prove that?” they smile. “But I can say, at least for myself, it has opened up a new level of awareness and self-compassion over the years.”
We know music is powerful: we turn to songs to feel comforted, to boost our energy, to appreciate beauty and so much more. But what about the frequencies; the actual soundwaves vibrating the air, our eardrums and our bodies – how do they affect us? From promoting deep relaxation to the use of noise as a weapon, there is a wide range of claims, and evidence, for the impact of sound. It moves us emotionally and literally, a theme that’s explored in a new exhibition at the Barbican in London called Feel the Sound. “The idea that the world is made up of vibrations and frequencies is something we don’t necessarily think about a lot of the time,” says Luke Kemp, head of creative programming at Barbican Immersive. “The big idea is how sound is more than an audio experience. We can think of our whole body as a listening device,” he says.
Take Jan St Werner’s Vibraceptional Plate installation, which visitors can stand on and then explore the resonance of their own body, and a film by deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie discussing the rhythms inside us and how she experiences sound. There’s a holographic choral experience, a playground of multisensory musical instruments, and for the finale, an installation in the Barbican’s car park featuring souped-up cars with big sound systems; part sculpture, part dancefloor.
