Multimedia research project – performative installation
The theme of terraforming Mars is one that has troubled me in recent times, underpinned by the apparent clash between the current climate disaster, and the very rich booking their trips into space. The dream of colonizing Mars seems to highlight our tendency for escapism to other realms as a result of deep trauma, in this case the collective trauma of slipping into our own extinction.
With a rictus on our faces, we are excitedly running towards a collective schizophrenia, only to realize that our minds will be suspended in a state of limbo, clinging to memories of what has been, while projecting sounds of utopia. Time is collapsing unto itself – the present becomes the memory, recalled in the future. Bodies are fragmented, displaced, socially atomized. Torn between these states, we forget about our presence (the state of being-in-the-world), about a materiality which is sensed and experienced collectively.
The project Listen. Do you remember the sound of my voice? represents an independent year-long personal and artistic research process, aiming to open up spaces for dialogue and exchange between forms of expression and presentational formats. Conceived initially as a radio piece, the focus of the work is directed towards the conscious act of listening – inner listening, outer listening and all-encompassing listening. It is a journey into bits and fragments of a consciousness, that is no more able to grasp its present reality and is fragmented between different temporal / psychological states.
The project takes on the theme of terraforming Mars, as a plead to return our gaze from the wonders of technological utopia to our very sense of being human. Emphasising the conscious act of deep listening, Pauline Oliveros’ sonic meditations are proposed as open gates to a personal inner experience, while an audio-visual narrative envelops the outer layer of the performance space. Spoken word of original content makes the connection throughout the piece between the external narrative and an internal struggle of longing and displacement.
The work is greatly inspired by the book Martian Time Slip by Philip K Dick, referencing parts of the text in the visual media.
Live Performance Videos from HUMBUG Club Click Here @Zwischenwäscherei, ZW Zürich (July 2023)
Three working phases drove the research process, tested within a performance situation: a narrative concert (Bucharest, RO – Mansarda, April 2023); performed installation (Zürich, CH – Zentralwäscherei, Jul 2023); immersive space, immersive audio implementation (Leipzig, DE – ZiMMT, Sept 2023). The work had its most extensive presentational format as a whole event (Basel, CH – HUMBUG, Jan 2024), with invited guests. It consisted of a two-layered fixed installation (an immersive sonic environment accommodating the intimate experience of the sonic meditations), live sound performances (KITE – own work), performance in space (VanBau – Civitas) and afterparty (DJ Shlepa / Tatiana Timonina). Finally, the work has been presented as a live feature performance at SNIPPET Festival Basel, April 2024
@HUMBUG Club, January 2024
The Martian landscape stretched before him, a desolate expanse that mirrored the emptiness within his mind. Jack stood alone, his pale blue eyes fixated on the red horizon, where the twin moons hung suspended like eerie specters. He clutched his temples, trying to quell the rising storm within.
Time had become malleable, twisting and warping around him. Moments blurred together, memories merging with fantasies, and reality frayed at the edges. Jack’s mind danced on the precipice of a psychosis attack, teetering between the lucid present and the haunted depths of his troubled psyche. Minutes stretched into eternities, and seconds raced by in a blink. The relentless cycle of day and night lost all meaning, merging into a never-ending twilight where the boundaries of past, present, and future dissolved.
from Ph. K. Dick – Martian Time Slip