E02 - Rachel S Y Chen with Wheelsmith and Sky Shen, “my tiny space”

Rachel S.Y. CHEN (Singapore)
“my tiny space” (2025) 

What does it mean to connect with another human being? Connection begins with creating a tiny space: a gentle, intentional opening where difference can be held, and lived experiences can meet. This piece gathers intimate sonic traces born from the world of non-speaking autistic individuals and their families. The piece begins with field recordings from the Magical Musical Mat (MMM), an interactive environment designed to foster connection through interpersonal touch and music. Non-speaking autistic children and their parents improvise with language that is tactile, joyful, and relational. Giggles, fragments of “Ode to Joy,” and layered soundscapes emerge from gentle contact: fingers brushing skin, palms held delicately. This is a tiny space where presence is alive and chosen. Next, the voice of fifi coo, a non-speaking autistic writer, enters, read aloud by the artist (with fifi's permission). fifi responds to the soundscape with a quiet clarity, reflecting on love in the creation of life’s tiny spaces. The piece ends with a piano composition created in response to fifi coo’s poetry collection a tiny space (2018), which shares his inner world as a non-speaking autistic child. Entitled my tiny space, each of Rachel’s notes dwells gently within the quiet truth of fifi poems. The composition itself is a place where fifi’s words and Rachel’s listening meet: a tiny, shared world where, for a moment, Rachel is invited to belong within fifi’s experience. Sitting above these soundscapes is a violin improvisation by Rachel, who reflects deeply on their journey listening, learning, and unlearning through close encounters with neurodivergent ways of being. my tiny space is, at its heart, an invitation to create spaces where people of all ways of being can come together in shared presence, finding belonging in the act of listening. 

At the core of Rachel S. Y. Chen’s work is a deep inquiry into human connection: the sharing of presence with others in ways that are authentic, embodied, and inclusive. Through art, design, and research, their practice is grounded in the belief that intimate connection does not require sameness, speech, or convention. Instead, true connection thrives in spaces where difference is welcomed, and where people listen deeply. Through sound, movement, and improvisation, Rachel creates environments where people can meet one another beyond words. Drawing from their research on the social lives of the neurodivergent community, as well as their love for sonic improvisation, Rachel designs environments that offer gentle invitations to explore intimacy, play, and co-creation. In these spaces, sound and movement become playgrounds for collective improvisation. Rachel believes that even the most divergent worlds can find harmony. Their work invites people to step beyond the familiar, to listen closely, and to co-create new ways of belonging.