Stasis Shift

Audioblast, APO-33, Nantes, France

10 February-10 March 2024, Platforme Intermédia

Too many people too much sound too many vibrations – we are destabilized. Sound is vibration — molecules jostling each other to form pressure waves. Every movement causes a vibration and thus sound, or a sound thus a vibration. In an imagined future of overpopulation and over mechanisation, the vibratory levels have become untenable. Laws are passed to quell the shaking, silence the sounding. In this future where excess vibrational energy is a crime, the act of bio-mechanical listening is the ultimate subversive act.

In the audiovisual installation Stasis Shift, I use different forms of sound transmission to explore the notions in this speculative narrative. Bone conduction headphones bi-pass the medium of air and biology of eardrums to directly vibrate the tiny cilia in our cochlea. A tactile bass shaker manifests the visceral power of subsonic frequencies, and as a final release, sounds are transmitted and shared through the air. Experienced by a solo listener, encircled in a gently pulsing video design, the idea of sonic immersion moves from the outside in, as the listener’s body pulses and vibrates, reminding us that invisible sound is physical material.

This work is part of the Sounding the Future project exploring what art in the future might sound like. www.soundingthefuture.com

The presentation of this work has been supported by Nicholas and Angela Curtis Cité Internationale des Arts Residency Fellowship through The Power Institute, University of Sydney; the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body; and by the NSW Government through Create NSW.