Fósil acústico. Listening (with) the River

Fósil acústico is a project by artists Santiago Reyes Villaveces (Bogotá, 1986) and Daniel Villegas Vélez (Manizales, 1984) that transforms Lab3 into a resonance chamber through a tactile sculpture in the shape of the inner ear, from which it is possible to manipulate the sonic environment of the installation. The auditory component of the work consists of field recordings and a continuous synthesized sound (drone) that responds in real time to the audience’s interaction with the sculpture as well as to the activity of the waters of the Aburrá River and its surroundings. To this end, an analysis station installed near the river’s source, in the San Miguel area, performs acoustic measurements using hydrophones and sensors that transmit data to the Museum gallery. The resonance measurements, which indicate currents and turbulence in the river, are used to modify the timbre or sound of the drone.

The recordings include soundscapes of the river basin obtained through community workshops, as well as sounds of native species collected over the past twenty years that belong to the Environmental Sound Collection of the Instituto Humboldt. These sounds function as memories in search of meaning. Thus, each phonographic recording acts as an “acoustic fossil,” a trace left by the interaction between human and natural forces, projecting itself into the future as a voice that, above all, acknowledges its own ephemeral existence.

Today, when the alteration of ecosystems, deforestation, and climate change processes caused by human activity (temperature increases, floods, droughts, and transformation of atmospheric patterns) have reached irreversible levels, each sound and each voice also speaks to us of its imminent disappearance. Through a tactile and sonic experience, Fósil acústico invites us to recognize our interdependence with nature and reflect on the climate crisis. It also suggests that listening is a total experience that involves our entire body and the ecosystems that surround us. Fósil acústico. Escuchar (con) el río is an invitation to feel and think about listening from the body, a situated body, a call to let oneself be touched by sound and, in turn, an opportunity to touch listening, placing ourselves in the midst of the web of relationships we maintain with the Aburrá River, with its territories, communities, and with the diversity of beings that inhabit its banks and waters.

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