sonifying ENERGY HEALING
Rei Chou presented a contemplative, participatory performance at CCA Santa Fe as part of ArtBridge’s COLAB series, using ¡Otro!, a custom-built system that translates movement into sound. The work unfolded as a shared experience grounded in attentive listening, subtle motion, and collective presence. Rather than positioning healing as something performed for an audience, the piece invited participants into a relational field shaped by sound, breath, and awareness, where individual gestures contributed to a larger, shared resonance.
The performance emerged from an ongoing collaborative exploration of how movement—beyond formal dance—can serve as a site for reflection, connection, and care. Drawing from Rei’s intuitive and embodied practice, the work approached energy not as a fixed or prescriptive concept, but as something sensed collectively through sound, proximity, and attention. Sonification functioned as a way of making relational dynamics perceptible, allowing participants to experience how subtle shifts in movement and intention ripple through a shared environment.
Presented within the collaborative framework of ArtBridge, the event emphasized experimentation, openness, and mutual inquiry. The setting at CCA Santa Fe supported a slowing down of perception, creating space for deep listening and shared awareness. Sound, movement, and presence converged to form an experience shaped as much by those gathered as by the performer—one that invited reflection without prescribing outcome, and connection without hierarchy.
Credits
Mover: Rei Chou
Videographer: Travis Fowler, Slice of Santa Fe
Sound Design & Technical Direction: Drew Trujillo
FINDING OUR WAY
This demonstration features dancer and choreographer Raven Bright performing with ¡Otro!, a motion-based sonification system that responds not only to movement, but to spatial relationships within the performance environment. Developed by Drew Trujillo, the system translates gesture, proximity, and shared space into sound, allowing movement and relationship to shape the sonic landscape in real time.
As Raven moves through the space—approaching, withdrawing, and reorienting—the system listens and responds, rendering subtle dynamics of connection and separation perceptible through sound. Rather than illustrating a fixed narrative, the work invites attention to how bodies relate to one another and to the environments they inhabit. Sound becomes a way of sensing presence and distance, revealing patterns of movement and interaction that are often felt but unseen.
The performance is grounded in collaborative and Indigenous-informed creative practices that value agency, responsiveness, and relational awareness. Rather than imposing music onto movement, the system allows sound to arise from the performer’s actions and spatial relationships. In this way, authorship is shared between body, technology, and environment, and meaning emerges through participation rather than instruction.
The resulting experience is immersive without being prescriptive. It invites audiences into a space of listening and reflection, where movement, sound, and environment remain in dialogue. By blurring boundaries between performer and sound, tradition and experimentation, the work offers a way of engaging with identity and relationship that is open, responsive, and continually unfolding.
Credits:
Raven Bright (Diné (Navajo), Dibéłizhiní (Black Sheep Clan)) – Performer
Justin Giehm (Diné (Navajo) and German) – Assistant Director
Josh Tafoya (Indo-Hispano) – Costume Designer
Debarati Das – Videographer
Drew Trujillo (Mexica Mestizo) – Technical Director, Sound Designer
Introducing… ¡Otro!
¡Otro! is a custom-built software system developed by Drew Trujillo to support collaborative, movement-driven approaches to sound and image-making. Designed for live performance, film, and video, the system translates movement, proximity, and spatial relationships into responsive sound, allowing performers and collaborators to shape sonic environments through their physical presence.
Rather than functioning as a tool for automation or control, ¡Otro! is intended as a listening system—one that responds to bodies in space and supports shared authorship across disciplines. It has been developed through close collaboration with dancers, choreographers, filmmakers, visual artists, and sound designers, and is used exclusively within these projects to maintain sensitivity to context, relationship, and intent.
¡Otro! is not a commercial platform and is not available for public use. Its purpose is to remain adaptable, intimate, and responsive, evolving alongside the artists and communities it serves. By prioritizing collaboration over scalability and process over product, the system supports creative practices in which sound emerges from relationship rather than being imposed from the outside.