In the programme of the #9 edition of Canti Spazializzati taking place under the motto ‘Neutral Field’ we present projects making an attempt at interpreting the audiosphere of the Wrocław Drain Fields as Neutrdrom according to Jerzy Rosołowicz’s idea. Thus, we continue last year’s activities, which – focused on sound impressions of the way Neutrdrom works – resulted in twelve premiere spatial compositions for a multi-channel installation in the Lifery at the Dizajn gallery of BWA Wrocław.
This year, we extended our working practice to include the aspect of creating acoustic space for sound, giving composers the tools commonly used in virtual and augmented reality (VR/XR) projects. We were interested not only in their possibilities in terms of composing spatial aspects of sound, but also in new contexts for performative activities.
We started listening to the Wrocław Drain Fields at the invitation of Katarzyna Roj in preparation for the exhibition ‘Field of Regeneration’.
The result of this process is an audio-paper prepared for the Glissando’s issue devoted to sound ecology, as well as the question of how we can preserve and record the audiosphere of the unique Fields’ ecosystem in the face of the omnipresence of acoustic smog from fast-moving trains and cars, motorways and airports? Reaching for the tools of creating the acoustics of virtual spaces, we create a set of sound proposals to broaden the perspective of listening to the soundscape of the Fields, experiencing their richness and sonic complexity inaccessible to the unaided human ear. In addition to technology, we take the spirit of Jerzy Rosolowicz to the Fields, and propose an interpretation of the Fields as a Neutrdrom space. Its audiosphere, conceptually interacting with the thoughts and emotional state of its occupants, becomes an environment for the practice of neutral activities. We propose listening to the Drain Fields as the Neutdrome that Rosolowicz wanted to hang over Wrocław. The acoustic spaces created by the invited artists in the form of virtual sound installations, dedicated compositions and performative actions are an invitation to open up to the exploration of deep listening practices.
Brandon LaBelle, in his essay ‘On Acoustic Justice’, in defining the concept of queer acoustics, points out that ‘to listen is not just to hear, but to tune and untune, to balance and clash the forms and forces that form us as individuals as well as participate in the formation of others’. Modified acoustic spaces can support this process by deliberately disrupting the dominant tonality of the places in question. The process of listening becomes an act of expressing the power of the body as a sensual and profoundly transformative capacity to express individual and collective understanding and capacity for collaboration. Listening as a capacity for attunement to co-participation, defence and debate, which supports reflection, compassion and care for self and others, helps greatly in contesting dominant social systems. In the book cited by LaBelle, Beyond the Periphery of the Skin: Rethinking, Remaking, and Reclaiming the Body in Contemporary Capitalism, Silvia Federici writes: ‘Our bodies have reasons why we need to re-learn, rediscover and reinvent them. We need to listen to their language as a path to our healing, just as we need to listen to the language and rhythms of the natural world as a path to the health and healing of the earth.’
Man, through conscious neutral action and in its results, can identify himself with nature, at the same time being more likely to assimilate it and, in contact with found reality, to process it more perfectly for his own happiness. A conscious neutral action is an action carried out by a human being that neither benefits nor harms him or her. It is the opposite of intentional action. This universal antidea, and the consequent conscious neutral action, are worthless in themselves, but as a complement to all ideas of conscious purposeful action, they constitute a tremendous energy capable of uniting, through what is the essence of nature, through movement, changeability, ACTION – all humanity, regardless of political and religious beliefs, nationality and race, or at least its MOST CREATIVE PART, in order to avoid annihilation.
Jerzy Rosołowicz, On Neutral Action, Wrocław 1967.
PROGRAMME:
Przemek Danowski, Wojtek Kurek – Neutral Field #2 (2021)
Beniovska, Michał Szota – Neutral Field #3 (2021)
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Beniovska
A representative of the techno and acid house scene in Poland, when she’s humming a bit she also likes to play Bajm. When she is not mixing with a mixer, she is involved in production and multidisciplinary projects of the young artistic body in Poland. A member of the Gnojki collective. She has played live acts and dead sets in local clubs in Poland and Iceland. Currently she is delving into the secrets of field recording while creating intriguing sound stories.
Michał Szota
By day he designs and builds original websites. By night, he conducts creative experiments using lessons learned during the day.
Przemysław Danowski
Artist involved in spatial, interactive and procedural sound. Lecturer at the Department of Sound Direction at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. Guest lecturer at the 3D and Virtual Events Studio II at the Faculty of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Spatial sound consultant at the Visual Narration Laboratory: vnLab at the Film School in Łódź. Recently, author and co-author of many interdisciplinary works realized in virtual reality technology. He is involved in immersive documentary, 6DoF experiences and interactive installations. Composer and multi-instrumentalist.
Wojtek Kurek
Percussionist, improviser, producer, author of music for theater and sound installations. He has recorded more than a dozen albums released in Poland, Portugal and the USA with free impro, electroacoustic improvisation and electronic music. He prepares instrument using synthesizers, max msp, pure data, arduino and effects. He has collaborated with Lukas Ligeti, Phil Minton, Evan Ziporyn, Tadeusz Sudnik, Tomasz Duda, Mietek Litwinski, Jacek Mazurkiewicz, Piotr Melekh, Ksawery Wojcinski, among others. His installations have been exhibited at BWA Katowice, Goethe Institute in Slupsk, Open Jazdów University in Warsaw, IP Studio in Wroclaw.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
The concert and premiere of the VR sound installations took place on 16 October 2021 in the Lifery space of BWA Wrocław’s Galeria Dizajn.
The works were available in the Lifery space until the end of 2021.
GALLERY:
REVIEW [PL only]:
“Performans na przestrzeń”, Marcelina Werner-Śliwowska for Ruch Muzyczny
TEAM:
Curator: Daniel Brożek
Production: Joanna Sokalska, Jan Chrzan
Co-organisers: BWA Wrocław Galerie Sztuki Współczesnej
Visual identity: Karolina Pietrzyk + Gilbert Schneider + Mateusz Zieleniewski
Series co-financed by the City of Wrocław.
