Part of DISRUPT 2026

Presented by Zhuo Mengting

What filters the sounds we are tuned to hear? Whose voice is granted volume, and whose is reduced to mere noise?

In Still Noise, the stage becomes a sonic laboratory where the underlying power structures of the performance space are exposed. From the mechanism of amplification to the room’s inherent acoustics, artist Zhuo Mengting takes the system apart to interrogate how silence and noise are socially engineered, revealing the physical and political cost for a body to truly be heard.

Through a sequence of live experiments with speaker systems, room tones and the sonic conditions of the space, the artist talks through the act of occupying the room, using her voice as a live test signal to reveal how the site receives and returns sound. Still Noise presents a site-specific inquiry that is open to glitch: an unpredictable, unrepeatable dialogue with the venue’s own reverberation, shaped by the contingency of the moment.

Part sensory experience, part critical investigation, this 50-minute piece invites you to listen beyond the signal. Sound is never neutral. By the time the feedback fades, you may never hear a performance space the same way again.

About the Artist:
Zhuo Mengting (b. Guangzhou, China, 1990) composes performative situations with site, sound, body and time, in the forms of live art, participatory installation, concerts and relational curation. She uses contingency as a method to explore and unsettle systems of perception, communication and social relation. 

With a background in literature, critical theory and indie music, her work is as concerned with language as with composition and the unspoken. She studied Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she is now based. She has created encounters in theatres, galleries and other settings, from public and domestic spaces to online, across the UK, Europe and East Asia, including Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; BY ART MATTERS, China; MAO Torino, Italy; National Theatre Mannheim, Germany; The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Czech Republic. 

Production Credits:
Created and performed by Zhuo Mengting
Lighting Design by Sanli Wang
Set Design and Construction by Rupert Earl
Textile Collaborator Dominique Savitri Bonarjee
Production Support by Burong Zeng
Communications Coordination by Lubing Chen
Key Visuals Design by Runxuan Yang
Literary Consultant Sam Kastin
Production Photography and Video by Holli Xue
Photos/design by Runxuan Yang, Vivi Peng & Sanli Wang 
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England
Presented with the support from Cambridge Junction
Project development supported by South London Gallery, SPILL Festival and Theatre Deli

Suitable for all ages

Duration: 50 minutes (no interval)

Warnings: Occasional loud noises

£10 • £10 student • £7.50 Troop members

Double Bill Offer: Buy a ticket for Still Noise and The Thicket for £26 • £20.50 student • £12.50 Troop members

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