I N H U M A N
Bringing a two-year development process to a close and subtitling the show “a trip through autocracy’s caustic debris”, Skewed Visions mounted the production “Inhuman” in a Minneapolis warehouse space in the summer of 2026. Having worked over that span of time as well, I was able to pull together an appropriately eerie soundscape to score the production.
My work proceeded from the project’s original topic of dehumanization. I thought about how aspiring dictators soften the ground for genocide by calling certain people vermin, snakes, cockroaches, monkeys, pigs, rats, worms, etc— and then, once the perception of the victims’ humanity has been thusly reduced, are able to treat them as people sometimes treat these animals.
The cast and crew was kind enough to join me and director Charles Campbell at my studio Cool Cat Audio for a series of lengthy recording sessions where we interviewed the participants about unpleasant experiences they’d had with animals, and also got them to imitate as many animal sounds as they could muster.
I then proceeded to comb the resulting audio for phrases, syllables, tonal expanses, and percussive fragments that could serve as building blocks to warp and fold into new shapes. I often isolated a particular melodic fragment and rendered speedups and slowdows of said fragment, repeating both forwards and backwards renditions as the source material to create an entire textural montage from that single phrase. Most of the resulting pieces were created this way. (The whistles you’ll hear here are an obvious exception— but if you’re doing a show with this sort of subject matter in Minneapolis in 2026, there’d better be some whistles!
Anyone who’s presented filmic documentation of live theater knows the frustration of doing so. To feature this work in an installation/ video context, I’ve revised the audio slightly at times. I’m also not necessarily syncing audio with the visuals as they appeared onstage— indeed, some of the visuals here were silent in the theatrical presentation— instead choosing to juxtapose image and sound in such a way that I feel maximizes the impact of both. And by slowing down a lot of the footage, it often allows more of the sound to appear than did in the production.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to have collaborated with so many gentle souls to make this piece happen.
—Mike Hallenbeck
Skewed Visions is
Charles Campbell: Co-Founder, Artistic/Managing Director
Gülgün Kayim: Co-Founder
Sean Kelley-Peg: Co-Founder
“Inhuman” stage production
Directed by Charles Cambpell
Performers:
Akiko
Erika Hansen
Masanari Kawahara
Megan Mayer
Matt Regan
Lighting Design by Heidi Eckwall
Sound Design by Mike Hallenbeck and Matt Regan
Sound and Lighting Operation by Matt Regan
Set Design/ Installation by Jess Kiel-Wornson
Photography by Zoe Cinel
“Inhuman” Film
Cinematography by Ben McGinley
Editing, Sound Edit and Mix by Mike Hallenbeck
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More info on Skewed Visions and “Inhuman”:
More info on Mike Hallenbeck:
Photos: Mike Hallenbeck