Jata C (beepblip, OR poiesis, Boštjan Perovšek, Bojana Šaljić Podešva, Brane Zorman): Kronolith

Chronolith consists of a complex multi-channel sound composition and stone slab installation. In the work, the bioacoustic group Jata C investigates the acoustics and temporal dimensions of stone structures and their sustainability and interdependence with humans.

The artists obtained the sound material for the composition via field recordings of various locations and quarries. The installation serves as a stone instrument, a sensory extension of the human body, with which the composition and the vibrations of the stones are fed back into the materiality of the slabs with the help of transducers, forming a feedback loop. During the production of the work, the artists collaborated with scientists from micropaleontology, geology and physics, and the supporter of the project, the company Marmor Hotavlje.

Jata C (beepblip, OR poiesis, Boštjan Perovšek, Bojana Šaljić Podešva, Brane Zorman) is an artistic group whose members share a passion for field recordings, bioacoustics and sound ecology. Their research combines auditory perception with ecological and social issues, expanding them with scientific discourse and original performances of sonic environments. In their compositions, they transform field recordings of their immediate surroundings into speculative projections of the future and delicate perceptions of the present.

They employ a vast array of field recording devices to capture the various environmental acoustic phenomena. Their performances follow a general score, leaving enough space for improvisation and live interpretation. The group has presented two other compositions to the public, namely ICEmeltings (2019) and Bibaret JC210120 (2020).

Ida Hiršenfelder (beepblip), a member of Jata C, wrote about the work:
To think of geological time, the time of the sailing rocks, the time of the lithosphere, and the time of the continents is to think of our insignificance in the big picture, our mortality (dust to dust), and fleeting transience. It is a realisation that might motivate us to stop the insane depletion of the Earth and instead marvel at its mighty delicacy and appreciate the innumerable entities that shaped it in the volatile space and aeons of time. The rocks from the mountains used to be the seabed. The first organic matter in soil was produced by bacteria. Much limestone on the Earth originates from the activity of coccolithophores, unicellular algae covered in calcium carbonate scales. Like us, they are both alive and dead, organic and inorganic. We know too well such distinction is needless; however, it matters what worlds world worlds.[1] It is almost impossible to find a place on the planet not dictated by humans or at least transfigured as the consequences of human interventions. To the world, a different world, ruled by reciprocity and not authority, requires internalising different questions. Jata C asks, “How can we hear a stone and its aeons?”

[1] Donna J. Haraway. Staying with Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016, p. 35. “It matters what worlds world worlds. It matters what stories tell stories.“

beepblip (Ida Hiršenfelder) is a sound artist and archivist. She makes immersive bleepy psychogeographical soundscapes with analogue electronics, DIY and modular synths, field recordings and computer manipulations. She is interested in bioacoustics, experimental music and sound spatialisation. She was a member of the Theremidi Orchestra (2011–2017) and is currently a member of the Jata C group for bioacoustics and sound ecologies. Her solo albums Noise for Strings, Vol. 1 (2019) and Noise for Strings, Vol. 2 (2020) were published by the Kamizdat label.

Petra Kapš (OR poiesis) is an artist and researcher of sound, sound perception and poetic performance. She extends the word in sonic spheres of time-space poetry. Along with the digital dimensions, her focus is nevertheless the physical presence of the body.

Boštjan Perovšek is an artist, composer and sound designer who composes experimental electro-acoustic music. His special is creating bioacoustic music based on the sounds of animals, particularly insects. In addition, he collaborates with the SAETA group and creates music for film and theatre, performances, multimedia installations and soundscapes for museums and galleries.

Bojana Šaljić Podešva dedicates most of her time as a composer to the research of sound as an entity that affects the listener both physically and in terms of content. Her music spans from complete abstraction to complex semantic narratives. She is the recipient of several awards for her concert compositions, incidental music and film scores.

Brane Zorman is an intermedia artist, composer, sound manipulator, producer and curator. He composes sound works for theatre, intermedia and dance performances. He performs electro-acoustic solo pieces and improvisations with local and foreign artists in surround sound. Working with sound and space, Zorman develops various strategies, techniques, dynamic and interactive modules, records and reinterprets soundscapes, and by way of sophisticated tools, he creates electronic and acoustic sound sculptures.

 

Co-producer of the installation and sound event is the Ljubljana Castle. The installation is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana, Department for Culture. The project is a part of konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art. We would like to thank the company Marmor Hotavlje for access to their quarry and the sponsorship of the marble slabs for the installation.

EXHIBITION OPENING: Wednesday, 27. September 2023, at 7.00 PM, Pentagonal Tower

Live sound event: Wednesday, 27. September 2023, 8.30 PM, Rock Hall - live sound event is also part of TO)pot that gathers artists, theorists and curious walkers to bring them closer to walking and listening as a spatial acting-out of the place and the body; as practices of reading, creating, grounding, immersing, being acted upon and acting in the environment; as ways of experiencing our myriads entanglements and interdependencies with other human and non-human beings and the world.