25.05.-14.07.2024
KLANGHAIN: Symbioses and Networks
Artists: Interspecifics (MX), Saša Spačal (SI), Jiří Suchánek (CZ).
Schönbornpark (Entrance Lange Gasse), 1080 Vienna.
The public sound installation KLANGHAIN searches for connections between nature and culture. The Schönbornpark serves as an exhibition space among the city’s greenery. We explore nature through artistic research. Both biological and sonar*-digital subcultures are rendered audible.
We ask: “What if culture was an expression of nature’s inexhaustibility, constituted of transgression, ambiguity, messiness, and paradoxes? Do other-than-human entities have an agency* of their own? Do they seek contact with our collective consciousness? And, if they do, what do they have to tell us?”
KLANGHAIN presents artistic approaches that seek resonances between the human and the so-called non-human*. The works oscillate* between poetry, natural science and eco-critical discourse.
Photographer: Aled Ordu 2024.
SYMBIOSES* AND NETWORKS
Every day we walk, run and jump on streets, lawns and paths, unaware that there are vast and fantastic worlds beneath the surface. Scientists and artists have long been speculating about what is going on underground. They continually design new instruments to better understand these still-alien species.
KLANGHAIN is an installation of three individual artistic statements that deal with subterranean* life forms and their symbiotic* relationships with manifold others (including humans). By rendering bio-data audible, we abandon anthropocentrism* and search for new sound experiences that reflect those fascinating biological systems.
Technology allows organic processes to become ‘tangible’ in the sound of an interspecies connection between humans and bacteria (Terrestrial Transmitter); the beguiling interplay between fungal mycelia* (Mycolyra); and new musics based on subterranean worm life (Soil Choir v.3.1.).
We’ll expand our sensory experience and knowledge of what happens underground.
*Agency: A philosophical concept that describes the ability to take action. More recent schools of thought are concerned with the meaning and movement of matter and objects (non-human agents). They assume that these entities are not passive, as conventionally assumed, but have an autonomous reach.
*Anthropocentrism (ancient Greek. Ánthropos, human) “human-centered”: A view holding that only humans hold intrinsic value.
*Mycelium: Non-visible part of a fungus or bacterial colony. A thread-like network of cells that supply the organism itself and surrounding organisms (e.g. trees) with nutrients. Not to be confused with the rhizome in botany.
*Nonhuman: Philosophical term used to describe beings that do not have sufficient characteristics to be recognised as human. Today, this often refers to robots or artificial intelligence and to other ‘species’, including spirits.
*Oscillate: Pendulum motion or swinging between two or more points. The waves of electrical voltages can be displayed on a digital oscilloscope. Their modulation is fundamental to any kind of electronic music.
*Sonar: An acronym for SOund NAvigation and Ranging. Remote measurement using sound waves. Sonar technology is invisible, it penetrates and measures material layers in geological investigations or underwater. It is also used in the human body in ultrasound.
*Subterranean (lat. sub “under”; terra “earth”): Synonym for “underground”. Some ecosystems are underground and invisible to the naked eye.
*Symbiosis (ancient Greek. sýn “together” and bíos “life”): How living beings coexist. There are many relationships between different life forms that protect and support each other. Humans, too, have symbiotic relationships, e.g. with our gut bacteria.
Microbiome of the project: Vienna Households (compost from MA 48 Abfallwirtschaft); worms from WormPower; City gardeners MA 42 Stadtgärten Wiens in Schönbornpark; Helfried Machaczek; Clemens Posch; Patrizia Ruthensteiner; Stefan Voglsinger (Setzkasten Vienna); Leli Hausch (MOOZAK); Lena Flatscher, Johanna Amlinger, Gesine Stern (Museum Support, Coordination, Press & Media); PG Factory (Jörg Gottschalk, Architect); Art Consulting & Production (Enrique Guitart, exhibition concept and realisation of display); Jula Meininghaus (Repairs on the display, Museum); Peter Oroszlány (graphic design, project-CI) and Lona Gaikis (Curator).
Located at Schönbornpark (Entrance Lange Gasse), 1080 Vienna.
With the financial assistance of the European Union.
In co-production with The Austrian Museum of Folk Art, Vienna. As part of their series before it gets better … . In media cooperation with the Klima Biennale Wien and the ScienceCenter-Network.
Funded by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport Austria (BMKÖS), The City Council of Vienna (MA 7 Musik), and the District Council of Josefstadt. Granted Eco-Event PLUS by the City of Vienna.
