How to Be Held: songs of self-soothing

Information about suitability:

Audience feedback

"Rhiannon's work makes me think, challenges my assumptions, alters my perspectives and is beautifully nuanced and exquisitely balanced.”
Jo Verrent, Director of Unlimited

About How to Be Held: songs of self-soothing


How to Be Held: songs of self-soothing is being mounted by Rhiannon Armstrong in the set of When the World Turns as part of Liberty Festival 2025.

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.

A textured, billowing cream tent canopy hangs overhead. Plants reach up from underneath, their leafy shadows dappling the material. A dreamy, faded close-up of a person’s mouth, near to another person’s ear, is just visible, blended into the tent roof.
Image credit: Blended composition of How to Hold, Behold and Be Held, taken by Julia Bauer, and When the World Turns, taken by Suzi Corker.

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.



  • Event details

    Venue Battersea Arts Centre, as part of Liberty Festival 2025
    Date Thursday 25 September
    Time Open 4 – 7pm. It’s a free-flow, durational experience, with audiences free to come in and out throughout that time
    Tickets Free, no need to book
    Ages: Open to all ages

  • Access Information

    How to Be Held: Songs of self-soothing happens in a relaxed environment. There’s no ‘performance’ that can be interrupted, or a specific performance area – this is a relaxed environment for people to enter into. You can come and go, move around and make noise, as you need.

    Seating can be adjusted according to what works best for you.

    There will be fidget toys and ear defenders available.

    There are never any moments of complete darkness.
    There are a small number of moments with pulsing lights (not strobe).
    There are a couple of moments with the sound of thunder.

  • Show Credits

    Lead Artist and Sound Designer: Rhiannon Armstrong
    Composers: Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Cutter/Nash, dmf (Sop), Katy Rose Bennett, Rhiannon Armstrong.
    Lighting Design: Marty Langthorne
    Multi Channel Programmer: PJ Davy
    Image: Image is a blended composition: How to Hold, Behold and Be Held, taken by Julia Bauer, and When the World Turns, taken by Suzi Corker.

    How to Be Held: songs of self-soothing is being mounted in the set of When the World Turns which was created by designers Andrea Carr and Dr Tanja Beer, and uses some of the natural sounds from the show which were recorded by Mike Challis and designed by Max Reinhardt.

    When the World Turns is a collaboration across time and distance between Oily Cart (UK) and Polyglot Theatre (AUS). Oily Cart’s version of the show, made for and with disabled children of all ages who experience complex and multiple barriers to access (often described as having PMLD), is on as part of Liberty Festival.