Emily A. Sprague / Alexandra Cihanská Machová: Little Nap Music

What: Composition for napping
Where: www.sensorium.is
Time and date: 25. 6. – 11. 7. 2021
Entry: Free / Donation

“We believe that rest, and napping, provides a healing portal for us to imagine, to hope, to invent, to create, to heal, to rest, to resist.” 

“Rest isn’t something you need to earn. When I want to lay down and take a nap, that’s a calling.”
– Tricia Hersey, nap activist

Little Nap Music is a mini-series of concerts-pieces commissioned by Sensorium: Beyond the Sound. US experimenter Emily A. Sprague, who specializes in meditative soundscapes, and Slovak Prague-based sound artist Alexandra Cihanská Machová have tailored a “soft sonic quilt” to soundtrack your afternoon snooze.

The concept of Little Nap Music takes inspiration from the US’ Nap Ministry activist movement, tied closely with ideas promoted by Black Lives Matter. Who has or doesn’t have a chance to rest in today’s society? What does the history of rest look like? Many studies in the USA and beyond observe a clear correlation between social and racial inequality on the one hand and the degree of sleep deprivation of disadvantaged and marginalized social groups on the other.

Sleep should not be a privilege or a reward for a job well done. Sleep and rest are fundamental human rights. Nap Ministry wield sleep as a means of resistance against a system that compels us to incessant productivity and perceives rest as something in need of earning. In a society prone to fetishize workload as a sign of success, the opposite attitude is often labelled as ‘laziness’. Yet science shows that a short power nap (roughly 20 to 25 minutes) can be beneficial for the nervous system, memory, creativity and overall health. Little Nap Music will be available on the Sensorium website from 25 June until 11 July 2021.

Read more about Nap Ministry here.