exhibition of 8-channel sound composition
18 Sep-19 Nov 2021
part of the project Acoustic Commons and festival Sound Walk City · prelude

Saturday 18 Sep 2021 at noon in front of Steklenik Gallery – exhibition opening (soundwalk)
Tuesday 5 Oct 2021 at 7 p.m. in front of Steklenik Gallery – soundwalk with an artist

The 8-channel sound composition (dis)solutions II reflects on proximity between bodies through water. Our bodies are a myriad of things: constituting of equal amounts of human cells as various bacteria, and 70% is water, which is in constant exchange. Our cells change according to our surroundings. Looking at the quantum world, we might even exist at several places at once. We are not stable. As quoted from Astrida Neimanis at the beginning of the sound piece: “Everyone both lives in and is a drain.” She writes: “We are all bodies of water …As bodies of water, we leak and seethe, our borders always vulnerable to rupture and renegotiation. It connects them to other worlds beyond our human selves. Indeed, bodies of water undo the idea that bodies are only human.”

Sound, both omnipresent and ephemeral, physical yet completely intangible, is potent for representing this complex mesh we surround ourselves with. It undulates through us, and some ricochets off our skin. We are in constant negotiation with other bodies, including through sound waves. The composition aims to take the listener through this experience of meetings, from scales of the planetary to the watery and microscopic ones. (dis)solutions II contains sounds within and outside of our human sonic world and include field recordings, hydrophone, electromagnetic and ultrasound recordings.

Some of the sounds include deep-sea hydrothermal vents, electromagnetic waves emitted by a computer built with raw materials from these vents, rowing on the Northern-Norwegian ocean, recording of the Trubarjeva Cesta in Ljubljana, Oslo underground sewer system, rains and rivers transporting water to mouths and guts, tubes blowing in the wind and others.

Artist’s words (explanation and acknowledgment):

I used deep-sea hydrothermal vents recordings from Hans Tore Rapp (the University of Bergen and K.G Jebsen Centre for Deep-Sea Research) with whom I collaborated for my work Intersected Waterbodies, exhibited at Meta.Morf Biennale X in 2020.

A work (concerning deep-sea ecology and deep-sea mining of hydrothermal vents for rare earth materials) also include recordings from NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Ridge2000/Dr. Tim Crone (LDEO).

Thank you to Gunnar Aslesen at Water and Sewerage Works (VAV) for allowing me to record Oslo underground Main Sewer System for project dissolutions.

Thank you to the artist and sailing residency The Dinghy AiR which I was part of in 2020. We rowed and sailed for a month on the North-Norwegian Sea. The recording you can hear is from us rowing and sailing from Sleneset.

Thank you to Blaukreuz for offering a Creative Commons 0 License stereo field recording of the Trubarjeva Cesta in Ljubljana/Slovenia at freesound.org and to Felix Blume offering a stereo recording of wind blowing and howling in some small plastic tube in the desert of Chile, also licensed under CC0 License at freesound.org.

I would like to thank sound engineer Cato Langnes and developer Thom Johansen for help with setting up Notam’s multi-channel studio and Notam for letting me lend the studio. And a huge thank you to sound artist and composer Mariam Gviniashvili for a thorough introduction into ambisonics editing. Thank you to artists and musicians Jiska Huizing and Jennifer Torrence for feedback on the composition.

Anne Cecilie Lie is an artist and scenographer based in Oslo, Norway. They’re working with sound, sculpture, bio-art, installations, video, text. Most often in collaboration with others in the creative field and within fields of scientific research, with educational institutions and local communities.

Credits:
Artist: Anne Cecilie Lie
Organization: Irena Pivka, Katarina Radaljac
Curator: Brane Zorman
Public relations: Katarina Radaljac
Translation and editing: Melita Silič
Cover photo: Anne Cecilie Lie
Production: Cona, Institute for Contemporary Arts Processing, 2021
Venues: Steklenik, Gallery for Sound, Bioacoustics and Art, Tivoli park
Partner: Studio Notam

Exhibition is part of the project Acoustic Commons, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the EU.