Nailing ceremony: Cara Tolmie

Welcome to the announcement and nailing ceremony of Cara Tolmie's documented artistic research project Internal Singing, Sounding Through Vocalbody Disorientation.

About the project
Internal Singing, Sounding Through Vocalbody Disorientation is an articulation, through multimodal forms, of a voice-body method that I developed called Internal Singing. Internal Singing is a method that has come into being through a state of amplified sensitivity within my own body. This condition was triggered by a succession of five concussions (mild traumatic brain injuries) over seven years (2016-2023), and an eventual diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome (PCS). Internal Singing has been a way for me, as an artist working predominantly with voice, sound and performance, to traverse and inspect my bodily terrain (both sensed and imagined) over this time, in order to sensitively re-learn how to play a voice and body now replete with unknowns due to injury. It has been the central method explored throughout the research and has been enacted through regular practice, performances, soundworks, collaboration, installation, writing, pedagogy and discussion.

Within this artistic research project, Internal Singing researches the disorientating effects of post-concussion syndrome in relation to the voice-body bind and allows materials and rhythms to come into focus through listening to and with both my own voice and body, and the voices and bodies of others. Over this time, Internal Singing has enabled me to hold open a space between study (practice and repetition) and surrender (following), whilst listening to (attending towards) a nebulous and disoriented reality due to the state of post-concussion syndrome. Throughout the research project, Internal Singing is presented as a wayfinding method, exploring how qualities emerging from this heightened state of sensitivity open up opportunities for insight, transformation, feeling and sensation for both vocalist and listener. Across these investigations, the project aims to uncover artistic strategies that allow for sensitive, complex and potentially dis/re-oriented voice-body relationships to come to light that can lead works into new priorities and aesthetic spheres. These explorations are situated within vocal and sonic practices across experimental musics, as well as visual and performance art, and at times in relation to choreography.