Top 5 Best Songs to Play in the MRI Machine (2025)

What started as a series of listening sessions in my studio, turned into a serious exploration of a seemingly silly question. In order to figure out which songs are best to play in an MRI, you must first grapple with the realities of having your body medicalized. What kind of emotions arise in such a situation and what does it even look like to be soothed? This project asks questions about what it feels like to be treated like a patient, when you’ve only ever thought of yourself as a person.

The project took two paths. I first created an interactive installation, where the audience is invited to lay down, place their head in a claustrophobic and dreamlike contraption and listen to a carefully curated selection of songs while MRI machine noises bang in the background. The work simulates discomfort and, by being presented in an exhibition context, recreates the unnerving feeling of being looked at that medical settings often inspire.

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​For the sake of accessibility, the work was also turned into an essay film. It was important to me that this work in particular would be available even to an audience that cannot always leave their home.