DEAFNOTES012: IN VIVO
Movement, sound and the organism
In the weeks and months leading up to the release of my first LP album DEAFDRONES and the resulting creation of XENOVERSES, I was given the exciting opportunity to participate in a project with the working title “IN VIVO”. This is primarily the title of a dance performance by the female ensemble “Unfolding Shapes” under the guidance of the choreographer Fiona Lie in collaboration with the artist Christine Rehders, premiered on April 5th at the SPRECHWERK Off-Bühne in Hamburg.
The performance is part of Christine Rehders' spatial installation, which creates an organic, living space with its extensive net structures made of nylon materials. IN VIVO is an exploration of the theme of the organism. Individuals come together to form a higher, pulsating unity, exist in exchange, through connection with each other and with their surroundings, remain alive through change and renewal. A central question of In Vivo is: How fragmented can an organism be?
I was given the opportunity to contribute an atmospheric sound piece. The idea was to introduce sound as an accompanying element to the audience as they entered the off-stage space, where they would initially only see the installation. It became apparent early on in the initial conversations that my work could be coherently integrated into the concept of IN VIVO. I immediately suggested releasing a physical limited tape edition - a special medium for a special project.
This developed into a very appreciative collaboration in which ideas and concepts on the subject of organisms were openly exchanged - I am very grateful to everyone involved in this project for this experience on its own.
At the time it was convenient that I had been working on a soundscape from my work for SPACES & GRAVITY and the DEAFDRONES, which undertook a translation of the “organic” into sound. The corresponding result had therefore always been used as a textural accompanying element. With IN VIVO, however, I had the opportunity to focus solely on the soundscape.
The technical infrastructure behind the sound is a mixture of several M4L components and other plug-ins that are primarily based on the principles of Probability and Generative Music Programming. Simply put, this means that these are sound systems which, once triggered, develop a kind of life of their own and continue to progress.
Always somewhat idiosyncratic in their approach, this resulted in unique sound structures that could never be reproduced exactly due to the large number of parameters. My basic idea from the very beginning was to create a sonic organism. The result was ultimately a seemingly alien soundscape.
I recorded a large number of rehearsals in one evening, over 120 minutes of material in total, and none of it sounded like the other, there were always shifts and different expansions. I tried to influence the parameters as little as possible, most of the time I sat or stood in the room, mostly without moving, and listened to every little change via the Bluetooth channel of my hearing aids.
I assigned each parameter to a term that stood for a characteristic in the development of an organism.
ΑΥΠΣΙ (AUPSI - autopoiesis (self-creation and self-maintenance): The organism maintains itself, regulates internal processes and separates itself from its environment.
assigned to: Feedback Looping
ΜΤΒΛΞ (MTVLX - Metabolism (energy flow): It takes in energy, processes it and releases by-products to enable growth and maintenance.
assigned to: Granular Synthesis
ΑΔΦΤΩ (ADPHTO - Adaptivity (ability to adapt to environmental changes): It responds to stimuli, changes through learning or evolution and develops strategies to shape its environment.
assigned to: Resonator
ΕΜΡΓΗ (EMRGE - Emergence (emergence of new structures and functions): Complex properties and patterns emerge from simple interactions, often not linearly predictable.
assigned to: Modulated Delay
ΤΜΡΩΝ (TMPRON - Temporality (development over time): The organism grows, changes, ages or goes through cyclical phases of regeneration and decay.
assigned to: Reverb
ΙΝΤΡΧ (INTRX - Interactivity (interactions with other systems): It does not exist in isolation, but is in constant exchange with its environment, other organisms or technological systems.
assigned to: Sidechain Processing
However, I had to limit myself in my selection and finally gave myself a week in which I listened to a number of different samples every day and finally chose the version that felt like IN VIVO to me.
I found it particularly exciting how IN VIVO sounded to me in different environments and volumes: in the silence of my own room, in a garden park, amidst the shrill noise pollution backdrops of the city, in train stations, shopping malls and pubs. Sometimes as something that completely absorbs you, sometimes as something that just subtly and unobtrusively floats along. During this time, I took many thoughts with me that have become central to the development of XENOVERSES:
Sound anthropology: the perception and construction of soundscapes
This approach examines how sound structures our social, cultural and material environment.The concept of XENOVERSES can be understood here as an alternative, speculative anthropology of sound. In doing so, I not only analyze existing sound ecologies (such as urban or industrial soundscapes), but also create new, synthetic ecologies that lead us out of familiar listening patterns.
This work is therefore more than mere documentation - it is an active reconfiguration of sound realities.
media archaeology: forgotten technologies and sonic alienation
Through the use of fragile, forgotten sound carriers such as audio tapes, I take up a media archaeological practice. I bring old technologies back to life, not in the sense of nostalgia, but to create sonic ruptures and alienation effects. In doing so, I want to question the linearity of technological development: instead of viewing sound media as a pure history of progress, I focus on hybrid materiality that combines the old with the new, the analog with the digital.
posthumanism & the ecology of sound
XENOVERSES goes beyond the human: sound is not only seen as an anthropocentric phenomenon, but as an independent, ecological system with its own rules, interactions and logics. Sound ecologies emerge from a human perspective, but can refuse to be addressed in purely human terms. Perhaps I am not hoping for extraterrestrial recipients, but am challenging a way of listening that breaks away from familiar expectations.
Is hearing a purely human experience or a universal quality?
Machines hear. Sensors hear. Animals listen to frequencies that we cannot detect. But do they also hear aesthetically?
Or is aesthetics a purely human concept that cannot be “translated”?
IN VIVO has been an exciting opportunity for me to initiate and further develop these thoughts - which is why I see this work as a first important puzzle element within XENOVERSES.
For more information about Fiona Lie and her dancing ensemble UNFOLDUNG SHAPES please visit: www.moving-fiona.com
For more information about Christine Rehders and her installation art please visit: christinerehders.fr