5 Mar–3 May 2019
Exhibition of 8-channel sound installation

Tuesday, March 5. 2019, at 7.00 p.m. – evening opening and sound performance
Saturday, March 9. 2019, at 12.00 (noon)  – Saturday opening and guided tour

Sound Disposition / Crystal Gardens is a meditation on coincidence and precision, two unresolvable questions that are posed to us when observing crystal shapes in time. It speaks of the tension between the mathematical constant and unexpected inventiveness that might lead to singularity or might also remain eternally quasi-random.

The growth of crystals is expressed as a tendency of individual atoms in chemical substances to select certain points in space at given physical conditions and form crystal lattices in layers that together compose the crystal shape. In spite of this, it is not possible to predict the final shape of the crystal as every substance also contains its own will and is exposed to a spectrum of coincidence. Science researches the stability of crystals for over a century. It was one of the decisive factors at the beginning of the information revolution when the ability of crystals to transform radio waves into sound waves was discovered, or the property to emit a constant frequency which is in the case of quartz used for precision time measurement.

In the sound composition of the installation, the precise structure is entwined with randomness. It follows the changeability of crystals that form a voronoi mosaic. The sound is broken, compressed, it crackles and builds up into unpredictable growths. At the same time, it projects the resonance spectrum of the crystals that form a constant soundscape beyond time variables.

With quantum computers, crystals are once again the harbingers of technological revolution, they are used by a scientist with the aim to solve the most elaborate enigma of qubits: to decipher the instability in time. One of the most puzzling properties of qubits is the possibility to influence the information with the human mind, which is a fascinating fact with extremely unusable consequences. In the physical conditions near absolute zero, crystals with inner oscillation cause quantum entanglement of electrons without using any inner energy and behave synchronously not only when selecting certain points in space but also in selecting different points in time and could be the constant that will be able to support the stability of quantum information in the future.

“An artist attunes to what things are, which means sort of listening to the future, which is just how things are – I think time is a sort of liquid that pours out of hatpins, underground trains, salt crystals. So, a work of art is also listening to itself, because what it is never quite coincides with how it appears, too.” — Timothy Morton

Robertina Šebjanič (SI) based in Ljubljana/ is working in the cross field of art – technology – science.  Her art – research focus is since several years oriented towards the exploration of water habitats and marine life which serves as a starting point to investigate and tackle the philosophical questions on the intersection of art, technology and science. Her ideas and concepts are often realized in collaboration with others, through interdisciplinary and informal integration in her work. She is a member of Hackteria Network and Theremidi Orchestra. She was awarded with an Honorary Mention @Prix Ars Electronica 2016 and nominated for STARTS2016 and for the White Aphroid award. She was SHAPE platform 2017 artist and in 2018 she was a resident at Ars Electronica (EMAP/EMARE). She performed / exhibited at solo and group exhibitions as well as in galleries and festivals: Ars electronica Linz,  Kosmica_Mexico City, Le Cube_Paris, Art Laboratory Berlin, Mladi Levi_Ljubljana, Piksel_Bergen, OSMO/ZA_Ljubljana, Device art 5.015 Klovičevi dvori_Zagreb & Eastern Bloc_Montreal, Eyebeam_New York, PORTIZMIR#3_ Izmir, Kiblix festival_Maribor and more… 

Ida Hiršenfelder [beepblip] is a Ljubljana, Slovenia based media art curator, critic and sound artist. Her focus research areas are media archaeology and archives of media art. She was a member of Theremidi Orchestra noise collective. She works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, +MUSM on projects related to digital archives. In collaboration with Saša Spačal she made a series of sonoseizmic installations (Crust, 2014, Sonoseismic Earth, 2015-2017) and other sound experiments. With Spačal she is also a co-initiator of ČIPke Platform for Women with a Sense for Science, Technology and Art. Time Displacement / Chemobrionic Garden in collaboration with Robertina Šebjanič and Aleš Hieng – Zergon was exhibited at Ars Electronica festival (2016) Radical Atoms exhibition in Linz and Device_art 5.016 exhibition in Montreal. Her sound composition were performed on Topographies of Sound festival and in the radioCona programme.

Aleš Hieng – Zergon is a chemical engineer by profession as well as a DJ, producer of electronic music and sound artist who also works in the field of audiovisual performances and in the vast field of DIY electronics. He is interested in club music as well as in sonic and audiovisual experimentations. His sounds range from deep house and techno to idm, noise and abstract drone music. He is a member of Synaptic Crew since 2003. He’s been releasing audio tracks on Chilli Space compilations since 2007. In 2012 he released Escalator EP on Synaptic Pathways label, and in 2016 his track got featured on a compilation released by Slovenian net-label Kamizdat. He’s a co-author of an audio-visual performance echo 10^-9 together with Robertina Šebjanič. Notable events & appearances: Grajska Gospoda w/ Masayoshi Fujita, Grad Lemberg; MFRU/Kiblix, Maribor;  Sonica Festival, Ljubljana; Strictly Analog Festival, Ljubljana; AMRO Festival, Linz; Piksel Festival, Bergen; Touch Me Festival, Zagreb; MusicTechFest/Earzoom, Ljubljana; Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana; ZNFI, Trbovlje;  Ars Electronica, Linz. 

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Credits:
Artists: Robertina Šebjanič, Aleš Hieng – Zergon, Ida Hiršenfelder
Organisation: Jasmina Založnik
Curators: Irena Pivka, Brane Zorman
Translation and Proofreading: Urban Belina
Photos by: Miha Godec
Production: Cona, Institute for Contemporary Arts Processing, 2019
Venue: Steklenik, Gallery for Sound, Bioacoustics and Art