Inchoate Buzz @ Tramway, Glasgow

Inchoate Buzz is a uniquely collaborative and immersive experience that tickles your senses and pushes you out of your comfort zone. Curated by Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome, the collaboration consists of sound designer Josh Anio Grigg, artist and researcher India Harvey, and lighting designer Charlie Hope. The performance is split into four acts, each a different style and energy, yet imperceptibly held together by a thematic uncertainty. The audience, or rather the participants, step with socked feet into a wonderfully orchestrated space. The floor is strewn with plush cushions and rugs, each brightly coloured and organically shaped. A playground for adults, the space is expansive and made larger by long and soft lights, which create a warm atmosphere.

Initially, Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome takes the audience through a yoga-esque experience, encouraging us to connect to our bodies through an experiential, somatic sequence. She embodies a space somewhere between grounded and ethereal. A Fluxus-like activity follows, in which participants interact with the set and with each other, deftly removing the audience-performer boundary. SERAFINE1369’s performance is bewitchingly distant – their movements are powerful and technical, and the dark lighting and bass-heavy sound provides industrial dynamism. 

Eve Stainton engages the audience with props; the muted garage music evokes conflicting states, seemingly ecstasy and inner turmoil. Stainton embodies a fundamentally queer performance in a rave-like setting. The final scene, performed by Isabel Muñoz-Newsome, is an aural and sensory experience. Primal sounds are created with cutlery, barking dogs, a piano, and an electric guitar, synthesised into an articulate mini-concert by Isabel and Tomoya Forster.

The performance worked so well because of its curation, the balance between audience participation and observation, and the vast space. It is, however, not for the shy. 

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Inchoate Buzz, Tramway, Glasgow. Run concluded.