Sonic Bed_ London

Kaffe Matthews has said to be one of the leading artists working with sound, and become known by making site-specific sound works live, playing in the dark in the middle of the space, the audience surrounding her, the sounds moving around them. This project - Sonic Bed_ London, developed in 2005, has been transformed and developed again and in new in different places, in all a different bed. I went to the London Bed on a sunday afternoon, at Kaffe's current residency in Bethnal Green. Climbed the stairs, stretched in bed and started to feel the music in a way I have never experienced before. I had 6 sub woofers under the mattress and 8 mids+tweeter behind side panels, meaning that 12 independent sources of sound were playing and moving independently at any one time around and under me. It makes you literally feel all the vibrations of the music in different parts of your body. Kaffe sees the bed as an instrument, and therefore works with anyone who is interested as well as commissioned composers to make pieces for it, using the specially developed software, built by and being developed in collaboration with David Muth. This allows her to control the 12 sources of sound and that act as 12 preassure points in your body. She chooses where to touch you. Kaffe says it's like bringing a gig to a person who can't go, it's about making new and experimental music more accessible to more people, by exploring other ways to experience it. I guess it's that but it feels more than that. Made me feel about other possible uses for the Bed, for example for people who, for some reason or another, are stuck to their beds. Anyway, Kaffe has a website - Annette Works - if you want to see what she is up to. To know a bit more about this project and the other beds (in Shangai and Taipei), read in Music for Bodies. This is intended to happen in 12 countries around the world, with a new localized bed being fabricated in each country using materials and craftspeople of that place and a local Bed Team found and facilitated to run the workshops and new music making activities in new spaces beyond the initial installation. Ah, by the way, Sonic Bed has been already awarded a Distinction in Digital Musics at Prix Ars Electronica, 2006.