Sonic Darts November : Terra Ignota
PRETEXT: This month Sonic Darts is extremely happy to welcome the artist Victor Mazon as new member to our collective. The following show is produced by Nicolas Spencer and Victor Mazon Gardoqui. Members of the Terra Ignota Research project.
AUDIO LINK:
Terra Ignota is a transdisciplinary research platform that studies the relationships between culture, nature, knowledge, and their various forms of representation, while seeking to generate instances of mediation and translation for different audiences.
It was initiated in 2015, based on the practices of gathering and meetings for and by a dynamic group of Chilean and international artists, scientists, curators, and producers, with a recurring nomadic laboratory based in Tierra del Fuego/Patagonia.
The term ‘terra ignota’ is used on maps to designate places unknown to humanity. The name of this project proposes the extension of this definition to indicate the limited or erroneous knowledge — shared socially — of the territory located beyond the geographical boundaries of the southernmost end of the planet.
This is the record of the journey of a group of researchers over more than 2000 km of coasts, channels, and mountains from the Antarctic Base Yelcho to Fiordo Témpano. The thoughts, reflections, and (dis)encounters are translated here through field recordings that were mixed, summarizing 8 years of an attempt to understand the complexities that this territory contains.
The perspectives of over 40 participants, including artists, scientists, and local communities, are gathered here through sounds, storms, silences, electromagnetic fields, and turbulence. Interviews, glaciers, tectonic plates, radio signals, and sound interventions are translated into this 59-minute listening experience, for the Sonic Darts program on Resonance FM with a selection of pieces and concepts by mixed Nicolás Spencer and Víctor Mazón Gardoqui.
A mirrored project:
If you mirror the globe, you will find Germany’s largest island, Rügen, at almost exactly the opposite position of Tierra del Fuego. Both lie at precisely the same latitude. (54°36’20.5 “S Tierra del Fuego / 54°36’20.5 “N Rügen). A closer look reveals many similarities in geography and landscape, climate, flora and fauna, history and archaeology, culture and even recent social and demographic dynamics.
SONIC ISLANDS focuses on the various auditory aspects of the TERRA IGNOTA project and is part of TIF 2023/24.
We are interested in the meaning of sound as a semantic system and as a form of artistic articulation. Questions about origin, identity, intercultural understanding but also about perception, legibility and interaction with the environment, social processes and structures beyond visually connoted reference systems are the subject of our joint research. Listening and making audible to stimulate changes of perspective in the process of artistic research and knowledge production as well as in communicating to an audience.
The research process started in Tierra del Fuego (March 2023) was continued on the geographically and culturally mirrored island of Rügen (September 2023). The results are presented on the opposite sides in the different local contexts — literally drawing a straight connecting line through the globe.
(Above. Images of the process during the 10 days walk through the Yendegaia to bahia Blanca Bay a field laboratory that seeks to develop and implement a contemporary archive on the so-called “intercultural contact zone” (Selk’nam, Kawesqar and Yagán) located in Yendegaia National Park (YNP). The project is deployed in two stages, the first is the continuation of our interdisciplinary research in the territory and field forum (2023). The process and research will be documented and published in different media, individual artistic projects developed further and presented in the second stage to the public beginning of 2024 at the Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas.)
Terra Ignota is informed by archeology, (colonial) history, (indigenous) practices, nature and climate of the region and is aiming to connect that to urgent global questions. It is rhizomatic, it moves slowly, listens, zooms in and out, and connects.
In a modular way — through small-scale and interconnected encounters and thematic clusters — it facilitates artistic alliances and interdisciplinary learning that is strongly rooted in the local. Terra Ignota aims to develop and grow organically from the local context while it is conscious of its outside perspective and embraces a non-extractivist attitude. Endorsing omitted native and historical knowledge, Terra Ignota aims to stimulate and contribute to new entangled narratives, artistic production and mediation. The dialogue and encounters it facilitates, feed into the wider practice of the participating artists, curators and scientists.
The reflection proved to be extremely productive. Beyond the similarities mentioned above, the residency process brought to light some very surprising connections that we had not anticipated — connecting once again with the pressing questions of our time. The project blog is documenting some of the findings, new connections and observations and shows some concrete site-specific sound installations, interventions, performances and activities.
Some images from the research process in Rüggen and exhibited in Berlin
More information on the research of the mirrored project: http://terra-ignota.net/category/docu_si23/
Image database https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunedcity/albums/72177720311534748/page3