HYBRID ENVIRONMENTS—
—SPECULATIVE SOUNDSCAPES

Technical structures. Transmission and distribution network, electrical grid, masts, structures of the transportation network, stand-alone power systems and new invisible environments growing between them ‒ objects and energy created by and for people. Constructions described as a means to an end, are often considered to be visual and sound pollutions. They belong to nomadic architecture ‒ as fast as they have been installed, they can be replaced or dismantled and become archived objects and sounds.

Hybrid Environments – Speculative Soundscapes is an artistic research and installation about probable transformations of the soundscape in the context of technological change. Reflecting on thoughts about the essence of technology, as well as on its environmental impact, I question what does the emergence of technical infrastructure introduce to the local context and how could proceed its integration with the sound environment? Is it a process of interpenetration or a process of entrainment? How would hybrid environments evolve in changing weather conditions? Which sounds will become signals and which of them keynote sounds? What new sounds, rhythms and energies will emerge?

The installation ‒ an environment ‒ consists of field recordings representing geophony, biophony and anthrophony. Micro-interactions between airborne sounds, structure-borne sounds and electromagnetic emissions evolve into their extended, speculative phase. 

Applied algorithms generated probable phenomena from honest sounds. It allowed leaving the process and structure partly independent from subjective decisions. To what extent are we able to capture and experience familiar sounds from revealed scraps?

Many thanks to Anne Wellmer, prof. Alberto de Campo, Christian Pfleger.

set:
2021 – Spektral-Raumohr Berlin
2021 – ArtSpace Bremerhaven festival curated by Robert Worden

photo:
Miłosz Szczęsny