Zhuo Mengting's STILL NOISE Will Premiere at Cambridge Junction's DISRUPT Festival
The 50-minute lecture-performance uses PA systems and feedback loops to explore sound as a system of power
Still Noise: Ways to Occupy a Performance Space is a new lecture-performance by sound and performance artist Zhuo Mengting, premiering at Cambridge Junction on 19 May 2026 as part of DISRUPT Festival.
Treating the theatre as a live sonic apparatus rather than a neutral container, the work uses PA systems, feedback loops, and room acoustics to expose how sound is structured and what can be heard. Through a series of live experiments, Still Noise explores how amplification operates as a system of power - interrogating which bodies are granted amplification, and what it costs a marginalised body to be heard.
The 50-minute performance begins with unamplified speech in a quiet, minimal setting, before gradually activating the theatre's hidden sonic infrastructure. As sound builds, voice shifts into distortion and feedback, revealing the physical and technical conditions of listening.
'This is a site-specific inquiry where the performance itself acts as a glitch in the system,' says Zhuo Mengting. 'It is an unpredictable dialogue with the venue's own reverberation, shaped entirely by the contingency of the moment.'
The work is informed by a creative team from the Asian diaspora, anchoring its exploration of marginalised voices in collective experience. It is led by Zhuo Mengting, a China-born, London-based artist working across live art, experimental music and installation. She studied Performance Making at Goldsmiths and has presented work across Europe and East Asia, including Tai Kwun (Hong Kong) and the Prague Quadrennial.
Presented as part of Cambridge Junction's DISRUPT Festival, a programme dedicated to experimental and live art practices, Still Noise offers a unique opportunity to encounter sound-based live art in Cambridge.
This is a relaxed performance. The audience stays seated throughout, and latecomers are welcome. There are occasional moments of loud sound.
|
Dorset County Orchestra Summer Concert St Mary's Church (6/27-6/27) |
|
Trainspotting The Musical Ipswich Regent Theatre (11/25-11/28) |
|
The Go-Between Stamford Arts Centre (9/12-9/12) |
|
ATLAS at The Underworld - London The Underworld (9/11-9/11) |
|
Lend Me a Tenor | Wolterton Hall Wolterton Hall (8/07-8/07) |
|
G4 Christmas 2026 - Westminster Central Hall Central Hall Westminster (12/11-12/11) |
|
CRYPTA downstairs at The Dome - London The Dome (8/15-8/15) |
|
Late Night Jazz: RCM Juniors Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall (7/02-7/02) |
|
|
Count Arthur Strong - And Its Goodnight From Me! Loughborough Town Hall (5/07-5/07) |
|
|
Trainspotting the Musical Wales Millennium Centre (1/25-1/30) |