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Ximena Alarcón-Díaz, PhD
Sonic Migrations Artist - Researcher
INTIMAL Environment, Deep Listening®, Telematic Sonic Performances
INTIMAL is a physical-virtual embodied system for relational listening that explores the body as an interface that maintains the memory of place, in the context of human migration.
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INTIMAL integrates interfaces that invite people to listen to their migrations and improvise with body movements, voice and words, in online and telematic improvisations (between distant places).
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INTIMAL encompasses two key aspects in the context of human migration: sense of place and sense of presence.
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INTIMAL is conceived as a long-term sustainable modular system for relational listening interfaces incorporating customizable tools to 'tune in' to our contemporary sense of place, through the art practice of sonic telematic performance.
PHASE 1 (2017-2019)
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INTIMAL was developed based on the experiences of Colombian migrant women in Europe, listening to their migratory journeys.
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In its first stage, at INTIMAL I designed the prototype of three software modules MEMENTO, RESPIRO and TRANSMISSION. MEMENTO is a navigation system for an oral archive with testimonies from Colombian women about conflict and migration; RESPIRO is a sonification system that transmits data from breathing sensors in real time across distant locations; TRANSMISSION, the solutions developed for audio transmission between cities, artists, audiences and open broadcasting.
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The system was tested in a long-distance improvisation (a telematic sonic performance) by the women participating in the INTIMAL research between the cities of London, Oslo and Barcelona (see video below). In this documentary INTIMAL (2021) you can see the full story of the project (see video below).
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PHASE 2 (2019 - present)
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INTIMAL App© is a mobile phone application developed by Ximena Alarcón that invites people to listen to their "migratory journeys", walking in their environment, to feel the place and feel the presence, alone and with others in distant places.
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The app detects users’ walking rhythms to be sonified and perceived as breathing. When used collectively, people can hear each other’s walking rhythms as “breathing”, feeling an embodied emotional telepresence. Within the journey, the app reveals excerpts from migration stories, which can trigger a response from the user, building the path with words and memories, as relationships emerge and they connect in an exercise of shared memories.
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This artistic and technical implementation was funded by The Studio Recovery Fund, awarded by The Studio, Bath Spa University’s Enterprise and Innovation Hub. This fund helped to ‘unlock’ the possibilities of the app by developing a service for the INTIMAL app and testing its usability, in the context of the pandemic lockdown. The service aims to create local and distant connections by detecting rhythms, opening up new paths and viewpoints in people’s limited daily walks during and after the pandemic lockdown, and to ‘unlock’ contemporary stories of local places, triggered by the voices of Colombian migrant women. This work was tested and implemented in collaboration with Dr Liliana Rodríguez (User Experience) and programmer Kieran Harte.​
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This is a documentary about the project INTIMAL.
This is a video of the Long Distance Improvisation INTIMAL.
After many other experiences the INTIMAL App© transcends the experience of migration as belonging to a particular group of people and involves a diversity of groups exploring the sensing of place and tele(presence). I need supporters and have created the following pitch:
Project Unlock, Bath UK 2021
INTIMAL App©, Pitch 2025
Funding and Collaborators
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The first stage of INTIMAL was developed at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo. INTIMAL received support from Mujer Diáspora for the use of oral memory archives, and from the Center for Deep Listening- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the virtual communication platform. The following organizations supported the performance INTIMAL Improvisation at a Long Distance, where the interfaces were used by improvisers from the INTIMAL virtual territory: Melahuset and VoxLab (Oslo), PHONOS Foundation and University Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), Iklectik ArtLab and CRiSAP-University of the Arts London (London).
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INTIMAL has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellowship grant agreement No. 752884, awarded to Ximena Alarcón, and has been partially supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence scheme, project number 262762.
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The second stage of INTIMAL has initially funded by The Studio Recovery Fund (Bath Spa University).
Follow INTIMAL on the website dedicated to the project: http://intimal.net
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