Magnetic Soundbaths
A soundbath is an immersive listening experience. Participants lay back as vibrating sculptures create an encompassing wash of sounds. The experience creates a mental space for relaxation, contemplation, and mental clarity among listeners.
The soundbath experience has been gaining popularity in NYC and across the U.S. in yoga studios, meditation centers, other private spaces. To read more about the movement, you can check out recent press releases here and here.
What is the experience like?
Many participants claim pronounced relaxation and reduction in anxiety both during and after the experience. It is not uncommon for participants to drift into hypnagogia, states of consciousness between awake and asleep. Some even engage in focused breathing exercises, incorporating techniques drawn from traditional meditation practices.
More than anything, a soundbath creates a temporary break from the sensory stimuli of an active life, allowing people space with their thoughts, and time to inspect their own internal mental narrative. Because of this, the experience is sometimes compared to other meditation techniques such as flotation tank therapy.
How is it "magnetic"?
We've incorporated our new technology into the experience. Most soundbath practitioners work with gongs or hand-held instruments; we instead use electromagnets, vibrating metal strings on wooden sculptures, inducing resonance to create the sound. So the vibrations are acoustic, coming from organic materials, but the experience is driven through contemporary technologies.
About Us
MJ Caselden is a sound artist and creative technologist based out of New York City. The sounding box sculptures are an invention that blossomed out of his own experimental sound meditation practice.
Caselden's artwork has been shown around the country in spaces such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Times Square Arts, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art.
Caselden Studios is a broader team of specialists that work with MJ, with skillsets ranging from woodworking to 3D modelling to electronics design. We are a design and engineering firm, innovating with technology to produce sensory-engaging experiences, interactive works of art, and new products.