New lexicon for democracy by Hamja Ahsan, in Shy Radicals: The Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert (2017)
Shy Sound
This soundscape was developed, recorded and produced as part of the Sound Recording and Production Techniques module at Queen Mary University London.
performance (for 2) {
tempo (hbm = heartbeats per minute);
count beats b;
boolean performer;
while (4 < b < 68) {
performer curl up on the floor;
if (b = 20 || b = 24 || b = 36) {
performer bite nails;
}
for (b = 8; b < 64; b = +4) {
!performer hand to the side;
}
.
.
.
} //end performance
To be shy is a personality trait associated with having less confidence and social discomfort. The composition “Shy Sound” explores the inherent confidence of shyness. Shy people make distinctive sounds that are often overheard in day to day life. Rather than asking the shy to change their behaviours this composition wants to heighten the audience’s sensibility to shy sounds made by shy people. Sounds associated with shy behaviours unite in this soundscape and confidently demand their space to be heard. It is a composition of naturally occurring sounds of life, arranged according to their inherent rhythms. Rather than adopting strategies to assimilate the loud world this composition is an attempt to occupy sonic territories colonised by noise through a quiet revolution.