Music, marbling and multisensory trancing

Subjective experiences of participatory arts are inevitably multisensory and multimodal, arising from systemic interactions between individuals, stimulus attributes (affordances of the artform(s) with which they engage) and environment. This article considers an ongoing immersive multisensory participatory arts initiative for adults living with mental ill health, taking place in both community and healthcare settings, utilizing Turkish water marbling (ebru) and musical sound generation. Marbling and music are shown to simultaneously mobilize and synthesize different senses and modes of experience in ways that can be conceptualized as a low arousal mode of immersive trancing. Motion, repetition and pattern emerge as key stimulus attributes facilitating immersion. Psychological qualities of experience include narrowed attentional focus, heightened sensory acuity, reduction of thought, present-centered conscious awareness. Shifts away from baseline states of consciousness provide temporary respite from aspects of self (such as overthinking/emoting). Perspectives from consciousness studies and psychological phenomenology highlight the self-regulatory potential of multisensory arts-based engagement.