Unlike the snail, we carry our homes within us is an immersive audio-guided performance installation by composer Peter Hatch and visual artist Matthew Talbot-Kelly. Combining both live and recorded sound with sculpture and projections, the work transforms Beaver Point Hall into a shifting landscape of sound and image that invites exploration at one’s own pace.

Participants wear headphones to follow a non-linear audio tour while live performances by Cicela Månsson, Meredith Bates, Kathryn Cernauskas, François Houle, and John Whitelaw unfold through structured improvisation; the performers respond to evolving experimental scores, to one another and to the space itself, as Hatch calls attention to our ever changing experience of time. Talbot-Kelly’s contributions, part of his Curiosity Museum project, offer poetic counterpoints - assemblages of fragmented open stories, posing questions about perception and memory. Every participant will experience the piece differently, shaped by their particular movements, focus, and perceptions of the interplays between sound and visuals.

Inspired by the experimental spirit of John Cage, including his roots in Eastern philosophies, the installation is an experimental meditation on identity and community in a world that often feels fragmented and overwhelming. Unlike the snail offers a space for collective slowing down, deep listening and reflection in an age of distraction.

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts