Best of KC 2024: Audio experiment Sound Mandala combines tech and tremendous dreamlike adventures
Tom Mardikes // Photo by Ellen Beshuk
Earlier this month, we published The Pitch’s annual Best of Kansas City issue. You can take a peek at the results of the readers’ poll here. The issue also included a list, compiled and written by our editorial staff, of some local people, places, and things that we thought clearly won 2024. We’ll be publishing these items online throughout November.
Tom Mardikes stands on the precipice of an audio technology that transforms the human perception of sound into a body, mind, and soul experience. Debuting first in Kansas City, the Sound Mandala brought new stories and songs to the 2024 Fringe Festival, and has nothing but potential. Each voice, instrument, and sound effect was placed one at a time into one of 80+ speakers all around an enclosed room to form a completely encapsulating and sometimes startling experience. Eyes can’t help but track the sound’s movement as it orbits around the listener, trying to place its source and see what it is hearing.
This experimental show displayed its range and opportunity from atmospheric Celtic music to frustrated females coping with loss, social isolation, and misjudgements. Although no longer with us (for now), the Sound Mandala’s evolution will continue through Mardikes and the many UMKC students he brings along, which may become a permanent, stand-alone theater. In the future, Kansas City may be able to boast that we were the first to experience the technology that has become the standard for museums, haunted houses, theaters, and more.
