MURMURATIONS, 2020
Three-channel sound installation
Directional speakers, c-stands, chairs, media players
Constantly changing loop
Murmurations, created in collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula, evokes cultural memory and aesthetics of the past while attempting to expose translocal truths of the present. Murmurations creates a visceral sensation of physical proximity in a time when distancing and division are the forced norm.
The title of the work, Murmurations, refers to a flock, an ever-changing, cloud-like organism – a system that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is a metaphor of collective listening, sensing, and awareness of the surrounding environment and its movement. On the other hand, a murmuration is a voice that is barely heard, a private mumble.
The work is based on anonymous, fragmentary passages of sensory observations collected during sensobiographic walks with voluntary local participants, conducted near bodies of water in Europe and the United States. The method and part of the material is derived from transdisciplinary research project SENSOTRA that investigates transgenerational changes in people’s sensory environmental relationships.
In Murmurations, these observations are divided into three parts – the no longer, the now, and the not yet. These categories refer to the observed metaphorical 'ghosts' of our environment in the more-and-human past, present, and future.
The installation creates an experience of oscillation between the private and the public through the use of psychoacoustics and hyperrealism in sound. A visitor experiences the whispered sentiments alone, while being physically surrounded by others. While providing an opportunity for introspection, the work also connects the viewer with the shared sensations and experiences of the anonymous, androgynous, and intergenerational other. This "other" can be anyone, anywhere.
Murmurations is commissioned by Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and realized in collaboration with SENSOTRA research project. Murmurations is kindly supported by AVEK – The Promotion Center for Audiovisual Culture, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, and Panphonics.
Photos: Uwa Iduozee (first photo), other photos courtesy of the artists.