How to Be Held: songs of self-soothing was originally commissioned by Wellcome Collection in 2020 as part of a larger project. How to Hold, Behold, and Be Held was a trio of digitally disseminated collaborative works made by a team of disabled artists exploring how we hold ourselves and each other against the unpredictability of existence. 

The music for How to Be Held: songs of self-soothing was made using as a starting point a riff, hook, or lyric from an existing song that a member of the public said they use to get themselves through tough times. The composers built that starting point into whole tracks offered back to the general public as a public playlist. 

This is the first time this music is being shared in person, within the scenic and sonic environment of When The World Turns.

Rhiannon proposed this site specific rendering of one artwork inside the world of another to Oily Cart after a year of immersing themself in and getting to know, as director of the theatre tour, the plants, sounds and surroundings that have been painstakingly created by the team for that production.

How to Be Held was also the case study for Rhiannon’s Permaculture Design certificate (graduation autumn 2025): the process and product were designed along permaculture principles.