Ddüwéwé: Cartography for a Synesthetic Invasion

Abstract

This article describes one of my recent projects developed in the context of my PhD in Music at the University of Huddersfield, UK.  Ddüwéwé is a Mapudungun word that means ‘the warp, the thread with which weaves’ (Alonqueo Piutrín, 2018, p. 74) and is the title of a collaborative initiative involving music composition, visual installation, and theatrical performance, addressing some aspects of the Mapuche people: one of the First Nation in southern Chile and Argentina. Starting from two Mapuche ritual objects that embody its worldviews, the project developed interdisciplinary interpretations of my observations on the experience of inhabiting the performative spaces involved: the Richard Steinitz Building at the University of Huddersfield (UK) and the Theatre of the Parque Cultural de Valparaíso (Chile). By observing these spaces, I was able to reveal what the inhabitant does inside, or in other words, what are the acts that define the inhabitant’s experience: an action of approaching by watching and walking. Furthermore, a collaborative exchange with other practitioners allowed the conception of a spatial and visual installation and the dramaturgical construction of the project. The experience offers new projections about essential elements and complementary aspects as factors of hierarchy in interdisciplinary proposals.