Communication Echolocation
Jasna Hribernik, Ljoba Jenče, Borut Čelik, Zala Zia Lenardič, Tomaž Šimnovec
@Speculum Artium 2021
Washing hall of Trbovlje Coal mine (Google maps)
Due to space limitations prior reservation is recommended.
In an encounter of voices and sounds of two simultaneously existing civilizations, that of humans and that of whales, a new SOUND-SPACE begins to emerge. During the performance, the sounds of whales combine with a human voice to directly generate a 3D composition of a VIDEO-SPACE. The aim of the project is to arouse a strong sensory perception as well as to generate an immersion so deep that it enables the spectator to distance himself from the world, enough to make it possible for him to think about the world and the possible scenarios of its future. One of those, the traditional Slovenian folk song Riba Faronika, is encoded in the central sound template of the project. Its imaginative power is an exceptional remnant of the cosmology of our ancestors. It was documented in 1952 at Podmelec in the Tolmin region, and it speaks about a fish that carries the entire world on its back. If the fish were to turn upside down, it would be the end of the world. A similar story can also be found in Japan.
The performance is a multimedia poetical research project that incorporates the principles of art and technology. In combining live performance with a new-media practice it creates new esthetic codes and sensory experiences. It consists of a dialogue between the “analogue” performing artist and the audio-visual space, the elements of which are being generated through the manipulation of picture and sound, activated by the performing artist during the performance via the sensors on her arm. Human voice, in communication with the sounds of whales, tries to establish problem fields of modern times, indicate new paradigms of civilization, and think of new worlds that are about to emerge in the future. It problematizes the break point, the future and the importance of the human species on planet Earth during a possible transition of our civilization.
Communication as a continuous and endless exchange of information in different ways: on the waves of echolocation, several thousands of kilometers, and if we think in terms of space, in immeasurable eons. The information that eventually turns into a dialogue spreads through all media, but the silky sea waters that cover most of our planet are the supportive medium on Earth, a universe parallel to the human one. It remains unexplored and mostly unknown. Nevertheless, it reaches out to us in ways we might not even yet understand. For millions of years, the secrets of great depths have been kept safe by the whales.
(Andreea Oarga Mulec, environmental biologist, project partner)
