Holding My Nerve

A radio show by Grace Denton. Every month on Slack’s Radio.

Join Grace as she embarks on a journey to find out whether ‘waking sleep’ – the act of simply letting the mind wander without stimulus – is truly restorative. In a noisy, digital age, switching off is difficult. Embrace the irony of tuning in to tune out, and enjoy an hour of contemplative silence with friends.

From a different location each show, she will begin by discussing her complicated relationship with meditation, wellness and productivity under neoliberalism. She will then spend the rest of the session being quiet in communion with the audience, and the sounds of the space will form the accompaniment, be they a Library, a beach, a moor, or a park bench.

Holding My Nerve aims to move beyond the hokey language of self-actualisation often associated with new age practices (especially Western, culturally appropriated forms). The radio show is part-field recording, part-endurance performance, part-novelty, and part-genuine curiosity. Will anyone listen to the sound of silence? And if they do, will they find solace, or peace of mind?

In August 2022 Grace published Holding Our Nerves—Experiments in Dispersed Collective Silence, Waking Sleep and Autotheoretical Confession which reflects on the development of the radio show, as part of Autotheory in Contemporary Visual Arts Practice a Special Issue of Arts Journal edited by Dr Cat Auburn and Prof. Katherine Baxter.

EPISODE 1: IN BED, ON ZOOM