UnKnowing Madness

Presentations

This page documents the various public presentations of UnKnowing Madness and will be updated as new iterations unfold. You can sign up to Thembi Soddell’s mailing list if you would like notification of future presentations.

The Big Anxiety Lived Experience Forum
Thursday 6th October 2022, 12PM, RMIT Storey Hall, Naarm (Melbourne)
Concert Premiere

The Big Anxiety Forum – Learning from Lived Experience was an immersive 2-day forum exploring the complexities of mental and emotional health from lived experience perspectives. 

UnKnowing Madness premiered here in concert, followed by an audience discussion led by Thembi Soddell, Mehak Sheikh and Alice-Hui Sheng Chang. This discussion explored abstract sounds’ ability to reflect lived experience of mental illness through audience reflection on their experience of listening to the sound.

Alice speaking to the audience.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: Alice addresses the audience with a microphone in front of a stage. She is wearing a long-sleeved dress with diagonal blue, red, yellow and peach sections. Thembi stands across from her, dressed in grey.
Seated audience member speaking.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: Seated audience member smiling and speaking into microphone.
Seated audience member speaking.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: Seated audience member gestures while speaking into microphone.
Thembi standing and listening.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: Photo of Thembi in front of an audience holding a microphone and listening to someone speaking
View of audience from the back of the room.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: View of rows of seated audience members from the back. Thembi speaks at the front.
Mehak addressing audience while Thembi looks on.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: Mehak facing Thembi at the front of the stage, both holding microphones. Mehak is speaking and gesturing.
Seated audience member speaking.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: Seated audience member speaking into a microphone. People around them listen.
Thembi standing and addressing the audience.
Photo credit: Steph Vajda. Images courtesy of The Big Anxiety.

Image description: Thembi addresses seated audience members using a microphone. They are standing, and wearing a grey hoodie and jeans. The audience is spread out across several rows of maroon chairs.
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Archives of Feeling banner

Archives of Feeling
Saturday 8th October 2022, 4PM, RMIT Design Hub Gallery
Concert & Audience Discussion

This concert was a satellite event of the exhibition Archives of Feeling: Sensation, Connection, Community, an RMIT Design Hub Gallery Project. It was part of the RMIT Culture program and The Big Anxiety Festival 2022, and presented in partnership with +Concepts, a presentation and performance series exploring the insights practitioners have into their own creative and cultural practices.

The concert was presented in the gallery, followed by an audience discussion on their experience of the work. Soddell also had an installation, Who Is Doing What to Whom? (Object Impermanence), in the exhibition, which ran from 19 August – 8 October 2022.

Audience view of Thembi's performance in a gallery space
Photo credit: Melis Layik

Image description: An audience view of the exhibition space where Thembi is at the front mostly obscured in darkness. Some audience members sit leaning against the wall on the right, others sit on pillows on the ground and folding stools. Rows of colourful drawings depicting boats and ships hang on the wall to the left.

Sleepless Footscray Festival
17 June – 1 July, 2023, Metro West Shopping Centre, Footscray, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Country
Experiential Installation

For the inaugural Sleepless Footscray Festival, Soddell adapted the UnKnowing Madness composition to a 4.2 channel installation format, designed to be experienced by one person at a time by appointment, lying on a bed in complete darkness. Tickets can be booked here (bookings essential).

Close up view of person lying down in sound installation, their legs visible
Image description: Person lying on black bedding with their upper body inside a chamber. Only their legs are visible, protruding from under a vertically hanging black curtain and propped on a black cylindrical pillow.
Front right view of sound installation.
Image description: Sound installation comprised of a bed in front of a cabinet draped with black fabric. There are two large speakers at the foot of the bed facing it. To the right is a desk draped in black fabric and a folding chair. The installation is flanked on each side by a side table draped in black fabric and a folding chair. To the left is a larger desk, also draped in black fabric.
Lined notebook with handwritten audience feedback
Image description: A hand with long nails holding open a lined notebook, with a pen under it. Handwriting on the right-hand page reads: Very strange experience I felt traumatised as well as [illegible] I had to keep reminding myself where I was and that is [illegible] only sound effects. Not sure how I feel about it. Terrible if that’s what’s going on inside someone’s head all the time. I’d go mad. It felt like a madness.
Front view of sound installation with person lying in it
Image description: Frontal view of installation with a person lying in it, the soles of their feet facing the camera. There is a step ladder to the right of the bed, and a lamp illuminates a notebook on the desk to the left.
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