Mother Earth is calling... do you hear her voice ?
If want to make a change in the world, we should to start by our own convictions and ideals. This is where art can affect us in ways that no other discipline can, raising awareness, connecting us with our true essence.
Mixing soundscapes, binaural beats, dance, medicine songs, and audiovisuals, PACHAMAMA will takes you on a journey to the heart of the four elements, to connect and find yourself within the nature that surrounds us.
National
Netherlands
Tilburg, North Brabant
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual
Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @magumusica
Yes
I went to the Music Summit in Cyprus and talked to the representant of the Bauhaus prize there.
PACHAMAMA is a word coming from the Quechua and Aymara indigenous people. This word means "Mother Earth".
Native american people believe in the power of music to connect and heal the Earth, and by doing so, heal ourselves and our society. Inspired by the honor these people pay to Mother Earth, artist Maia Steinberg has created an interdisciplinary performance based on the four elements, as a form of live meditation, where binaural beats are combined with soundscapes, live looping, poetry, medicine songs, audiovisual and dance.
The whole idea of the performance, is to invoke the four elements with chanting and to give the audiences a space of connection with these elements, that are basis for our lives. The whole immersive experience is led by a voice, representing our collective voice : our power to change the world.
The performance includes soundscapes that recreate the texture of the elements their names in different languages, as well as audiovisual representations of native sacred lands, accompanied by a live dancing performance. We also hear in the background the frequency of the Earth in the form of a binaural beat, that connects us in a sonic level with our roots.
There are various elements present in the performance coming from different cultures and traditions. The idea is also to pay honour and homage to this planet as a whole, for, beyond our European borders, we must not forget that we are all united by the mission of making a better world and we should be humble enough to welcome native cultures and their amazing teachings on how to respect and care about the Earth.
This type of innovative art can plant the seeds of the future. With the development of technologies we have more resources to create powerful concepts that can change the world but... do we really use them for that ?
Let use art to touch people, to build bridges, to help manifest a change... we artists have a great responsibility towards our society !
Interdisciplinary creation
Innovation
Sound healing
Sustainable art
Conscious art
One of the key objectives about my concept is education and raising awareness, but in an innovative and sustainable way.
Instead of giving people factual information and educate them with a more "traditional" method, so to speak, I created this performance as a dispositive to let spectators experience on their own the power and the connection with Mother Earth, and from this experience identify and find within themselves the will to change something.
In quantum physics it is demonstrated that like attracts like, same as in spiritual and metaphysical disciplines. In this sense, ideas precede manifestation in the physical world, and our ideas guide as our actions. If we are just receiving negative messages and images, that would contribute to us being more negative in our reactions, even putting ourselves -as massive media does- in a place of guiltiness, frustration and sorrow. Who likes to be there?
Can you think about what a positive impact we can have just by connecting with people from a different place? What about creating connection with beauty, with inspiration, with the sense of belonging? What if we stop showing all of what surrounds us as something external but rather as an extension of ourselves?
We need to educate by example and inspiration, to come back to our essence and connect with our responsibility as humans to take care of what we have in common. "Sustainability" coming from the world "sustain" makes us realise that we are all supported by something bigger that we all share, something that sustain us all... and there is an urgent need to find what connects us rather that what separates us. If we create experiences that enhance this, we create a very positive impact in the world.
What precede our actions are our states of mind, so we need to work on them in order to create bigger changes in the world. This is the contribution of a project like PACHAMAMA... connect with what lies below the visible tip of the iceberg.
The design of the performance is based on showing the beauty of nature, and within this beauty create positive emotions that lead the audiences to be conscious about our connection and responsibilities towards nature. Based on the past experiences, many spectators felt very moved by the performance, to the point of having tears in their eyes and feeling a sense of belonging to the world, as they expressed it.
The whole concept offers a meaningful aesthetics experience combining different elements that also act in a therapeutic way.
The first thing we hear is a binaural beat, oscillating in the frequency of the Earth (7,83hz). This has a positive influence on our nervous system and brain, making our bodies feel relaxed, open to the experience and connected with the sound of the Earth, that embodies us all. Think about how great impact we would have in the world if people felt less stressed, more peaceful and focusing on positive outcomes ?
Then we have medicine songs that enhance this effect and with their lyrics invoke the qualities of the four elements. This is not simply poetry, for we know that words have powerful vibrations and if we invite this vibrations to come into our lives, they have an impressive impact. Moreover, the singer uses sound healing instruments that enhance this connection and state of peace even more.
After invoking the elements with music, we find visuals filmed in a forest in North Carolina, where people from all over the world came together last October to play music from every represented country (JMI Ethno program). This place vibrates with oneness and unity, so do the visuals. With the images we also have a soundscape made by words in different languages, enhancing this cultural connection and sense of belonging to something bigger.
Last but not least, we have also a live dancer that appears with the visuals, embodying the different elements within her body... symbol of surrender and connection with nature.
As stated before, the performance makes an emphasis in connecting to one another by the same sense of belonging to the Earth. If there is something that can unite us all as humans, this is it. Moreover, the performance speaks an universal language that anybody can relate to, and where everybody is welcome and included.
First, we have the different soundscapes created with words including many different languages. They recreate the texture of the four elements, symbolising us humans embodying nature no matter our cultural differences. Also, with the use of Brainwaves, the concept shows how we are all affected by the same principles and we can be entrained to vibrate in a same frequency.
What I explained before about the visuals, is very significant. I participated in this Ethno program last October, where musicians from all over the world gathered and taught one another tunes from their own cultures. This changed my life, and thus I wanted to film this sacred place where the vibrations of our songs, our togetherness and the integration of all these amazing cultures together created something unique. In sound healing we learn that everything is vibration and I strongly believe that these images content more than our eyes can see.
In this place there were many indigenous cultures as well, so somehow the performance, also by its name, includes and pays honour to these minorities that really connected to the power of the Earth and took care of it. I wish we could learn more from them.
Inclusion is the one of the main key objectives of my project, also because is about including nature in our lives. This might sound very strange, but do we think for ourselves only or do we also include a thought for the Earth in our actions? Do we think about the effects of what we do or do we include in our behaviours a quote of responsibility for the future generations? Inclusion is also about embodying our ideals and not only think for ourselves, but for our planet.
The performance was created for a sustainability event in the city of Tilburg, the Netherlands. This event was in the form of a symposium, and I decided to show people that sustainability is not only a matter of science, urbanism, or other disciplines not strictly related to artistic creation.
The result is that the audience was very surprised after being a part of the performance, for most of them did not expect at all to have an artistic experience like this in a sustainability event.
This caused an impact in many ways. First, trying to break this myth that only certain professionals or certain groups of people can do something related to sustainability and caring about our Mother Earth. Second, showing that we artists carry a very important responsibility towards our environment and that we can also do something to change the world. Moreover, most of the time we artists are seen as entertainment, especially by higher social classes. This is unacceptable for me, so I am giving an example on how we can move people and be more than recreation.
Third, this performance is not unidirectional and even if the audience is "watching" the performance, as it is a healing performance, people get involved in it in a passive way, receiving something very powerful. The feedback I had about the experience shows that people felt moved, relaxed and inspired after it, and they felt they had been offered a space to "breath" within the beauty of Mother Earth.
As said before, taking action is preceded by having thoughts and feelings towards something. If we can contribute to enhance these feelings and plant the seeds of intention, that causes already a lot of impact, and that is what PACHAMAMA has been doing in society.
The performance was mainly conceived by artist Maia Steinberg on her own, having not any support from anybody. That is why she decided to go on with it, because a lot of professionals, especially within institutions, don't believe in the power of art to create a better world and promote sustainability. In a local way, PACHAMAMA could take part in the sustainability symposium, thanks to Fontys academy, in the Factorium theater, Tilburg, on the 6th December 2022. They are engaged in exploring new ways of promoting sustainability and thus they gave a space for this concept to be shown, but they did not take any part in the design and development of the project.
The next step in the concept is to create partnerships with local, regional and national partners, both music related and education related. As the performance can be combined with other workshops I have created with the theme of the four elements, there are many ideas to be implemented, that are detailed later.
There were many different disciplines involved.
1- Sound healing/sonotherapy. The knowledge coming from this discipline was used to create different aspects of the concept. The first one is the binaural beats, that have been conceived as an oscillation in the Schuman Resonance. This frequency (7.8 Hz) is the fundamental mode of a set of frequencies that are present in the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum, and have influence on our bodies, as we are connected to the Earth. Secondly, a set of three medicine songs were composed taking the characteristics and energy of the four elements, based in spiritual and shamanic knowledge, also used in sound healing. The last medicine song is pre existent and comes from native american music, present in the sound healing repertoire. All of these songs are sung accompanied by sound healing instruments: shamanic drum and singing bowls.
2 - Sound edition, music composing. For the aspects stated before, sound edition and music creation were crucial to develop the material used in the medicine songs, binaural beats and soundscapes. These last ones were created with the sound of words in different languages and texture creation by manipulating the sound of these words.
3 - Audiovisual edition. There is an important visual part in the project that interacts with the sound elements. The visuals were carefully chosen and recorded in places that were sacred for native cultures.
4 - Dance. The representation of the elements embodying us humans through dancing is a crucial part of the project, that brings a 3D image of the representation. This interacts with the visuals and the sounds/music, giving it a new dimension.
5 - Poetry. Words have vibrations, and thus the performance use powerful words. Poetry was used in the conception of the medicine songs but also at the end of the performance, where there is the final loop and a poetry is introduced, interacting with the music.
My concept is going in an opposite direction of what the mainstream proposes. Think about, how many times did you hear about a performance that is conceived as an immersive healing and connecting experience with the Earth, using new technologies but also ancient wisdom and brainwaves that induce positive states of mind within the audience ? Moreover, think about this performance as being minimalistic and zero waste.
As an opera singer and an avid performer, one thing that really concerns me is the quantity of waste that contemporary performances tend to use, specially in the world of Opera. Apart from this, I feel concerned about the messages that are displayed, very often related to violence, hatred and concentrating in the negative aspects of things, as if this was normal. Being into sound healing, I realised how powerful and life changing it can be to focus on beauty and to positive emotions, that will lead into going into positive actions. That is where a project like PACHAMAMA can be an example and brings innovation in terms of what can be done combining art, healing and social impact, with a minimum resource waste and a big adaptability to different audiences and spaces, embracing our oneness within our differences.
Another innovative aspect of PACHAMAMA is that it goes beyond a performance, as there are certain workshops I created that can be combined with it. One of them is called "Singing the elements" and it has been implemented in Rotterdam, in local community singing circles. The workshop proposes an immersive and meditative experience where people gather and connect to nature with their voices, creating a space for safe and free expression, respect and positive impact.
Overall, PACHAMAMA offers a unique and innovative approach in terms of connection with our world, by putting emphasis on what the world has to offer to us and how we are responsible for it.
The performance itself can be presented in very different contexts, as it is very adaptable in terms of equipment, venue, etc. However, what it is more interesting about it, as mentioned before and later in the development plan, is that the performance also can be combined with certain activities like the singing circles, and opens the field to create new workshops, educational activities and artistic outcomes.
One of the next steps of the performance is, next to the workshops and reflection spaces, to provide participants with a product that will enhance their will for change, with tips, suggestions, and different actions that can take place to create a more sustainable world.
The project addresses the challenge of disconnection between humans and natural resources, mainly addressing the issue of how there is a general unconsciousness about how our resources are limited and how we take more than what we need. Moreover, we are not educated enough to feel connected and perceive our resources as a part of who we are in essence. This is something that ancient civilisations knew and still know very well, and that we modern societies are educated to ignore.
The performance is conceived to be a part of an educational program where we later create a space for questioning and reflection, in different contexts and spaces in a local sphere. Part of this reflection will be related to what can we do to minimise our impact on Earth and create a more sustainable future. In this sense, the main global challenge that PACHAMAMA addresses to is the Sustainable Development and Climate Change, but also promoting the idea of equality in terms of how we are all connected by the same issues and responsibilities.
That is why, the performance is meant to be part of something bigger where, in a near future, in partnership with NGO's there might be concrete actions to be made, related to nature preservation. The idea is to present PACHAMAMA both in cultural venues and in educational institution, where there can also be a partnership with nature preservation organisations that can give tools and advice to audiences on what can be done to reduce our impact.
