We determined that BWK-BCN will need to somehow begin to record its history, to create an archive and a new community identity. Therefore, we developed “The Historical Society of Shared Rhythm”. This organisation’s mission is to create a historical context for understanding BWK-BCN in the future as well as in the present. It will preserve information, but also disseminate information and provide a physical space for people to gather.
Historical data will be collected via contemporary oral histories. Citizens, as well as newly arrived refugees, will be solicited to come to the HSSR to tell their stories, to share their personal narratives. History will be written collectively rather than by individual scholars. People will be encouraged to use their own languages and their own style to tell their story. The HSSR will provide the option to come in and record your story alone, or to attend a live story-sharing event in which individuals can tell their stories as well as create stories and narratives together with their neighbours – friends or strangers.
The HSSR also takes recorded stories and puts them through a computer generated algorithm that responds to the particular storyteller’s emotional cadence and stylistic devices to create a unique musical track. These musical tracks are shared with the general public free of charge and also assist in understanding and learning diverse languages. The HSSR then puts on weekly Monday night dance parties (the work week in BWK-BCN is shorter) in which individuals of all backgrounds and languages come together to party hard to their oral histories.
The HSSR functions to build unity through a communal access to stories created by and for the community via a shared love of music, a love which connects humans to each other as well as to other species via sound and/or rhythm. It generates history in the present, which works to cultivate an understanding, awareness and appreciation between a diverse assortment of identities. HSSR provides one with the empowerment to have a voice in a collective understanding of reality, today and tomorrow. It is also a really cool place to hang out and expand your music collection.
