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BREATHING ALPHABET

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Although we all continousely breathe - an extensive breathing record system does not appear in our modern culture. We find punctuation signs and pauses in the musical notation, but they only give hints where to take a breath and how long it takes, and not how to do it. Breath is treated as a break, a negative space/void, absence of sound - while it is an extremely powerful medium for sharing experience, making the conscious recipient a co-creator; both in artistic, social and environmental terms.

Since 2015, I’ve been creating the Breathing Alphabet - a respiratory graphic signs system. Based on several years of analysis of traditional techniques from different cultural circles; transmitted orally among others, Tibetan Yantra Yoga and Tsa Lung, holotropic breath, Hindu Pranayam, Siberian Buteyko methods, Anapanasati meditation, breathing connections with the speech apparatus, etc., I’ve conceived a breathing notation that can be used for a personal breathing practice as well as a method of artistic expression.

Breathing alphabet is a pictorial language, reflecting different variants of breath and experiences connected with it. In the context of current changes in culture, in which reading and writing gives way to more sensorial picture-sound communication, the Breathing alphabet creates both a new artistic method and a medium for deepening the awareness of one’s own body and mind.

Individual characters are an attempt to systematically present the different variants of human breath. From the letters of the alphabet, one can create compositions on the model of music scores, which accordingly initiated breathers can exercise alone or in groups. The Breathing scores intend to create a transformational, therapeutic experience, enacting lasting changes on both- the individual and the collective atmospheric body.

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