How to be Held: Songs of Self-Soothing is an immersive, multi-sensory sound installation within a living landscape of over 300 plants, atmospheric light and surround-sound.

Settle on cushions and beanbags, feel as the world fades from day to night and back again, and be held by a sound world that breathes with you.

Choral harmonies, synth textures, natural soundscapes, and looped melodies flow through a 360-degree sonic environment. Each track responds to a real self-soothing hook, lyric or riff offered anonymously by the public, and re-imagined by artists across musical styles. Come and go as you like, or stay for the full three-hour cycle, which repeats like a lullaby or a phrase we hum to get ourselves through tough times.

Songs of Self-Soothing is a work-in-progress by nature: always evolving, always responsive to its surroundings. Originally commissioned by Wellcome Collection as a digital experience during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Liberty Festival marks the first time it can be experienced in person, as a site-specific installation within the set of When the World Turns, by the director of the show’s UK tour.

Taking Songs of Self-Soothing into the rustling, breathing environment created by Oily Cart (UK) and Polyglot Theatre (AUS) brings two worlds together and delves into chiming themes of care, reciprocity and eco-systems.