Sonic Rorschach
PAULINE OLIVEROS November 1971
Group/Solo Activity
from Sonic Meditations
With a white or rondom noise generator, flood a darkened room with white noise for thirty minutes or much longer. The band width of the white noise should be as broad as the limits of the audio runge. A pre-recorded tape or a mechanical source such as an air compressor may be substituted for the generator, if necessary or desired. All participants should be comfortably seated or lying down for the duration of the meditation. Half way through, introduce one brilliant flash of light or one loud, short pulse. The high intensity flash source could be a photo lamp flash or one pulse of a strobe light. If a sound pulse is substituted for the light flash, it must necessarily be of higher amplitude than the white noise.
Variations:
- Find a natural source of white noise such as a waterfall or the ocean and go there for this meditation.
- If the white noise generator is flat, equalize until the source is apparently flat for the human ear.
- Do this meditation with a different band width represented in subsequent meditations such as one octave at 5k to 1Okhz.