November 2025

This DEMO takes the form of a creative and reflective journal by Nancy Tobin, a student member and PhD candidate at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Her research-creation project aims to explore how her dedicated meditation practice inspired and guided the creation of the staged sound art performance Superheart L’Opéra, presented at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines in Montreal from October 9 to 12, 2024. With support from Hexagram-UQAM, she was able to explore the acoustics and musicality of the theatre’s architectural structures.

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Meditation

Through sustained meditation practice, as my attention becomes ever more refined, I discover a multitude of phenomena whose subtlety never ceases to amaze me. I encounter them in a calm, attentive state, as they are increasingly delicate, and increasingly elusive. In this inner space I explore, I come to understand with clarity, beyond discursive and rational thought. Through the concrete experience of these phenomena, it becomes clear that nothing lasts; nothing is fixed or permanently defined. Without a doubt, I recognize that I suffer when my experience fails to meet my expectations or the desires I anticipate. What truly unfolds is a gradual understanding of my true nature, as I come to realize that the idea I have of myself does not exist. I am like phenomena: insubstantial, unstable.

Research-creation

I am currently in the process of writing my thesis. Through writing, I seek to understand the creative process beyond and beneath the self. At the heart of the creative process, I identify certain dispositions—such as attitudes or postures—inspired by my meditative research. Here are a few of them; they are sometimes correlated with concrete aspects of the creative process behind Superheart L’Opéra.

Research-creation dispositions grounded in my meditation practice

Discovery without pursuit

Consistent meditation practice allows me to discover new forms of awareness—what Shunryu Suzuki calls the beginner’s mind—in an embodied and experiential way. This discovery does not come through seeking, but rather through the practice of letting go, welcoming the unexpected, and cultivating an attentive and caring presence. The effort involved is not in trying to find (a search directed toward a specific outcome), but in sustaining a state of openness and availability to what arises in the heart of the moment.

This posture in creative research is defined by a purposeful avoidance of outcome-driven control. The effort lies in freeing oneself from the habitual tendency to project into a desired situation. Therefore, curiosity and trust become primary. Discovery occurs by maintaining a state of availability, rather than seeking according to our expectations and preconceived ideas.

Non-understood knowing and tentative exploration

I do not yet know the research terrain with precision. What inhabits me is a cluster of intuitions—embodied, irrational certainties. I feel drawn to certain ideas and starting points. I feel compelled to try them, to explore them, though I do not yet know exactly why. This is what I call non-understood knowing.

I trust these sensations. I do not seek to understand them, to define them, or to master them. However vague they may be, I respect their state. I do not attempt to clarify them in an abstract manner (in thought) before experiencing them. I search by groping, by feeling. I touch, I try, I walk in the dark. My approach is experiential, concrete, and embodied. It is one of tentative exploration.

A Posteriori Coherence  

Perhaps a moment of illumination will occur. My understanding of why certain ideas or starting points feel so compelling may eventually become clearer. This is what I call a posteriori coherence.

In this research-creation process, I approach non-understood knowing as the manifestation of the future in the present, while a posteriori coherence would correspond to the manifestation of the past in the present. All temporalities are present simultaneously, now.

The atmospheric libretto

This collection of premises (initial ideas for scenes or tableaux, starting points), quotations, thoughts, and drawings was shared with my collaborators on November 17, 2023, during our first meeting together, just before we began rehearsals. It contains no specific text to be repeated (no dialogue), nor any musical score to be interpreted. I wanted this libretto to be atmospheric, simply a way to unify our singularities in a shared quest, a process of attunement. Its conception took place in the summer of 2023, during a workshop dedicated to that purpose. Over the course of about a month, I reread every handwritten journal I had kept since the beginning of my doctoral studies in 2018. I gathered passages and quotations that spoke to me, without questioning them, without thinking too much.

Throughout the process of creating the libretto, I followed an approach inspired by meditation that I envisioned applying to the creation of Superheart L’Opéra. Anchored in the immediacy of the moment, I transcribed the words from my journals onto separate sheets; sometimes, drawing ideas would emerge. While working in the immediacy of the moment, nothing else existed—not me, not my expectations, not my desires. I drew and transcribed, nothing special. The pleasure lay in listening to the strokes of my pencil scratching the paper, in the quiet joy of a drawing that came to me unbidden.

All of this will have meaning. Don’t be afraid. Trust. Such joy cannot be useless.

We are not heading toward discovery; we are already there. Everything worth knowing is here and now, for those who are present. 

Presence anchored in the heart of the here and now proved to be a generative disposition for multiple lines of inquiry throughout the creation of Superheart L’Opéra. We occupied the entire performance space at Théâtre La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, as if its building were an instrument to be interpreted and rediscovered with each performance.

To this end, during research laboratories held as part of the Hexagram UQAM residency, we explored the theatre’s acoustic qualities and the musical potential of its structures. The sound produced by the lighting system, an inherent sonic imprint of the theatre, became, for us, the tonal foundation for every moment of musical interpretation. Using condenser microphones and other specialized equipment available through Hexagram, we were able to amplify and study La Chapelle’s resonant potential with a level of precision that would have been otherwise inaccessible.

Superheart L’Opéra 

Superheart L’Opéra is an invitation to honour the slow, profound transformations that unfold within us when our desire for control begins to soften. Between gentleness and pop effervescence, La Chapelle resounds to celebrate fumbling, the unexpected, and openness to whatever arises, in a luminous gesture of gratitude for the present. For the occasion, the theatre transforms into a true musical instrument. Subtle sonic and visual details, patiently unfolded, take the place of the grand spectacle traditionally evoked by the operatic form. Expectations dissolve, time stretches, perceptions deepen. The theatre vibrates with gathered presences and redefines the spectacular by revealing it in the infinitesimal.

The invitation—extended to those on stage as well as those in the audience—is to anchor oneself in the hollow of the present moment. Superheart L’Opéra unfolds in the here and now, in situ and in nunc. Here are a few selected excerpts, chosen primarily for their visibility from the fixed camera positioned at the center of the audience. The performance, far from being solely frontal, unfolded throughout the entire theatre; sometimes the lighting is very low. 

Collaborating artists 

Twenty-one people were involved in the creation process, to avoid any one person taking on too many tasks. In Superheart L’Opéra, the primary concern was to preserve a peaceful, calm quality in the work. Twisting what was reasonably possible in order to satisfy the desire to perfectly execute a preconceived and abstract idea was never acceptable. Instead, our approach was to cultivate the capacity to be present with what was already there, and not worry about an unfavourable outcome.

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Acknowledgements

With heartfelt thanks for your support and collaboration:

And to all of the individuals and organizations whose presence, generosity, and insight nourished the creation:

Références (sélection)

Anālayo, Cittaguno, B. (2020). Satipaṭṭhāna : le chemin direct pour la réalisation. Almora.

Baas, J., & Jacob, M. J. (2004). Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Boutet, D. (2018). La création de soi par soi dans la recherche-création : comment la réflexivité augmente la conscience et l’expérience de soi. Approches inductives, 5(1), 289–310. https://doi.org/10.7202/1045161ar

Larson, K., Cage, J. (2012). Where the heart beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists. New-York: Penguin Books.

Nhá̂t Hạnh, Laity, A. (2017). The Other Shore: A New Translation of the Heart Sutra with Commentaries. Palm Leaves Press.

Suzuki, S. (1977). Esprit Zen Esprit neuf. Paris: Seuil.

Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)