Recording Laughter on all continents

Laughter is one universal lauguage.

Like dialects there are a lot of personal and cultural differences!
Interesting !

So far the research of the LaughterLab focused on collecting full belly laughs in four world continents _Africa, Asia, South America and Europe_ to identify simularities and cultural variations in laughter.

Australia and New Zealand have yet to be explored

[photograph taken in China, Godelieve Smulders recording laughter]
[photograph taken in China, Godelieve Smulders recording laughter]
South American Laughter
Azian Laughter
African Laughter
European Laughter

Laughterlab is a research and production center for art projects about laughter

Laughter is our universal language, rising above cultural and political polarities. Everyone, from whatever culture, can exchange a laugh. It’s our common language, the shortest way to each other. No physical borders, no social barriers.
Laughter shows humans at their best, united in body and mind, connected to each other.
The fast and light ‘bits & bites’ of  social media and internet form an excellent platform to create art works about the explosive, luminous nature of laughter.

Public Space Pop-up  LaughterLab wants to make use of public space (such as railway-, subway stations, museums, buildings etc.) and thus making it possible for everybody to encounter the contagious and bonding qualities of laughter. Unexpected, inspiring, accessible.

Worldwide Laughter

Alf-15-16-totaal-2048x1360

Participation in the Amsterdam Light Festival, 2016, children project.

The theme for the children was.. a table !
Figuring that the most fun we had playing underneath the table, I proposed and realized a laughter project in cooperation with the kids of three different schools.
They loved it. Kids laugh 50 times more often than grown-ups ! (What a lost paradise !)
So we video recorded the kids laying on their backs bursting in laughter with each other. A compilation was made from the footage and shown from the top of the monumental table downwards on the floor underneath the table.

Amsterdam Lightfestival 2016

E-L@UGH

E-l@ugh is wrapping the world in laughter.
Together with Barrat Art Projects, Laughterlab is creating a smart phone App through which you can videorecord your laughter!  The free App e-l@ugh is available for android on google playstore and for apple on appstore..so be ready to record your laughter!
Ask your friends and family to l@ugh with you and share your l@ughter with the world with thousands of people laughing with you !
You can vote  for the most authentic laugh.  From the best 100 laughs a super audio-visual movie compilation will be made and offered to the U.N.as a sign of connection, a World Portrait 2016
By donating money to the  e-l@ugh project you will support Right To Play.

e-laughstation_kopie

Millennium project World Laughter Monument

1 January 2000 l World wide audio happening 
The World Laughter Monument: a world wide audio project  took place during the change of the millennium 1999-2000, starting at the Fiji Islands.
The world is divided in 24 timezones. At exactly 24.00 hrs at the local change of the millennium in each specific timezone, journalists collected laughter and sent it to the LaughterLab in Amsterdam through the internet.
After journalists in the last time zone had sent their laughter to us, a laughter audio composition was made and broadcasted simultaneously by 500 radio stations worldwide at 10:00 hours GMT January 1st 2000. At that very moment the World Laughter Monument was built virtually in space to welcome the new millennium.
The project was a great success and received substantial international media attention.

Millennium project
  • As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it!  [Laotse 500 B.C.]
    Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. [Victor Borge l [Danish-American musician/artist 1909-2000]
    He who cannot laugh, cannot start a shop. [Confusius 551 b.c.]
    Laughter is an instant vacation. [anonymous]