STILLE

is an experimental film made in collaboration with filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer and Google Arts & Culture, capturing moments of silence into a meditative experience.

“I think silence is something like a mode of perception. Of course little audible stimuli and a low volume level play a certain role, but more important to me is that inner peace that unfolds, if you allow yourself to listen to silence.”

Kira used an array of devices and techniques, from recording underwater with d-i-y hydrophones to exploring sound grains and impulses through synthesis. The sounds of Stille were designed to slow the body tempo to nine second breath cycles.

Silence can work wonders for the human body, from slowing our heart rates and growing new brain cells to encouraging periods of contained self reflection.

Total silence is hard to find, and can actually be immensely jarring for humans, inducing primal fears. Sounds that encourage slow breathing are designed to invite a similar reaction to actual silence in the listener’s body, without triggering the fight or flight response.

Thomas Riedelsheimer: “It is exciting trying to translate the feeling connected to silence into images. This feeling of let go, of being in the presence, of connecting to the world around. 

I think it is like in meditation: the less stimuli we have, the more we can really perceive. In that respect I don’t see a difference between image and sound. There can be visual silence as well.”