Defence of doctoral thesis "Internal Singing – Sounding Through Vocalbody Disorientation"

Artist Cara Tolmie defends her work Friday 29 May at 1 pm at Medborgarhuset in Hägersten.

“Internal Singing, Sounding Through Vocalbody Disorientation is an artistic research project that uses various forms to explore a voice-body method that I have developed, called Internal Singing. The method emerged through a state of heightened bodily sensitivity within me, which arose through a series of five concussions (mild traumatic brain injuries) sustained over a seven-year period (2016–2023), followed by a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome (PCS).

As an artist working primarily with voice, sound, and performance, Internal Singing has been a way for me to navigate and examine my bodily terrain (both sensed and imagined) in order to sensitively re-learn how to play a voice and body now encompassing many unknowns due to injury. It has been the central method explored throughout the research and has been enacted through regular practice, performances, soundworks, collaboration, installation, writing, pedagogy and discussion.

Within the artistic research project, Internal Singing researches the disorientating effects of post-concussion syndrome in relation to the voice-body bind and allows materials and rhythms to come into focus through listening to and with both my own voice and body, and the voices and bodies of others. Throughout the research, Internal Singing is presented as a wayfinding method, exploring how qualities emerging from this heightened state of sensitivity open up opportunities for insight, transformation, feeling and sensation for both vocalist and listener. The project aims to uncover artistic strategies that allow for sensitive, complex and potentially dis/re-oriented voice-body relationships to come to light that can lead works into new priorities and aesthetic spheres.” /Cara Tolmie, May 2026

PhD student Cara Tolmie is part of the study programme Art, Technology and Design (KTD), run jointly by Konstfack and The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.

Read more: Public defence of doctoral dissertation: Cara Tolmie - Konstfack

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