Visualising the cochlea, improvisation, and embodied interaction: the shape of sound installation and performance at Coventry’s Anglican Chapel, Paxton’s Arboretum London Road Cemetery

The Shape of Sound project is a site-specific installation and performance exploring how movement affects the sounds that we hear by creatively interpreting the anatomy of the inner ear. Using qualitative research methods such as Experiential Anatomy and inductive thematic analysis, this study asks how the historic and acoustic past of Coventry’s Anglican Chapel can co-curate contemporary installation and performance. This paper expands on the process, namely, the practice of visualizing the cochlea and embodied interaction. The relationship between sound and history created by the installation and performances housed within the Anglican Chapel (Coventry) is examined. These processes facilitated engagement with soundscapes in the immersive experience of the project. The researchers utilise the artist’s, performers, visitors, audiences’, and workshop participants’ reflections on the installations, performances, and workshops that have taken place in Coventry (United Kingdom) in 2021–2022. The project found that experiencing a space through creative or arts-based methods can prompt visitors to experience soundscapes. Combined with their affective experience, participants benefited through guidance towards a deeper understanding of the place and surroundings. The concluding section discusses the future of the project in the context of the sound signature of spaces housing the Carthusian order of monks.