MALLBODIES, A Performative Elegy To The American Mall Announced

Shopping malls hold a strong place in American culture as well as personal culture. Mallbodies, is a soundwalk performance dedicated to - and in critique of - our experience and memory of the American shopping mall. This project is designed to be listened to by individual audience members using headphones while exploring a shopping mall of their choosing. Mallbodies explores the origins of the shopping mall, our attraction to it, our histories within it, and how malls could function today and into the future. Mallbodies is performed for an audience of one (or do it with a friend!) as they stream the series of tracks on a playlist on the Mallbodies website: www.mallbodies.biz. It is pre-recorded and can be listened to anytime from March 18th through May 18th, 2021.

Mallbodies is a self-guided immersive experience that lasts a little over an hour, though you may decide to pause the audio at times and spend more time in certain locations. Mallbodies requires a smart device to play the project as well as headphones or other listening devices. Proper footwear is recommended and carrying water would be helpful. For the duration of the performance, we suggest the audience member stress extreme caution and take seriously the proper COVID-19 precautions (the use of hand sanitizer stations, wearing of a mask, keeping appropriate distance). As an extra defense, please reach out to your local public health administration and research local indoor retail business guidelines. At any point the audience member feels hesitant or unsafe they should leave the mall.

Mallbodies Indigenous Nations Land Acknowledgement:

This audioplay was created and recorded in five distinct locations and is situated on their own Native Homelands. These lands include Philadelphia, PA (Lənape Haki-nk (Lenni-Lenape)), Staten Island, NY (Munsee Lenape), Providence, RI (Narragansett, and Wôpanâak (Wampanoag)), Sarasota, FL (Seminole and Calusa), and Webster Groves, MO (Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Kaskaskia, Osage, Myaamia, O-ga-xpa Ma-zhoa?? (O-ga-xpa), and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ nations). We hold gratitude and honor each of these nations, their pasts, their presents, and their futures. We commit to learning more of these nations and of all nations on whichever grounds where we stand. For more information on native lands, and acknowledging your own native lands at the site of where you experience this audioplay, visit: https://native-land.ca/