SONG OF FIRE
THE OCTAVE OF VISIBLE LIGHT: A MEDITATION NIGHTCLUB
"Lia Chavez experiences intense visual imagery generated spontaneously during her meditations, and uses the content of these visual images experienced during her deep meditative state as a source of creative inspiration for her multimedia work." - Frontiers in Neuroscience
Song of Fire (2023)
Sonic Endurance Performance, 40.01 minutes
A commission by MIT List Visual Arts Center
Presented at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, MA, 2023
Song of Fire is a 40-minute vocalization composed through extended contemplative practice with fire. Created during sustained nocturnal meditation sessions conducted in front of bonfire, the work consists of 23 non-lexical vocalizations structured through repetition, melodic progression, and vibrato—a sonic field investigating consciousness, elemental presence, and the conditions under which sound operates as threshold between perceptual and spiritual registers.
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"Elicits enlightenment for mind, body, and soul alike." - Whitewall
"Chavez, who has exhibited everywhere from London’s Tate Modern to the Venice Biennale, is known for creating neuroscientific and technological works that contemplate encounters with light." - ArtNet
The unaccompanied vocal composition engages parasympathetic response and meditative attention, positioning sound not as representational content but as perceptual condition—a temporal structure through which awareness is recalibrated toward states of heightened receptivity. The work extends Chavez's ongoing inquiry into how disciplined contemplative practice can render perceptible what ordinarily exceeds sensory organization.
Part of a larger body of work exploring sound, fire, and celestial observation as sites of revelation, Song of Fire proposes vocalization as a form of communion—an encounter in which sound discloses elemental intelligence and cosmic interconnection through sustained attention rather than linguistic meaning.