Alchemy of Crystals is a multimedia installation and sound performance based on piezoelectricity—the property of certain materials to generate electrical energy under mechanical stress and, conversely, to deform when subjected to an electric field. At the centre of the work are Rochelle salt crystals (potassium sodium tartrate), a material first identified in the seventeenth century in the French city of La Rochelle. This material later played a pivotal role in the discovery of piezoelectricity, demonstrated in 1880 by brothers Pierre and Jacques Curie.
For this project, Tin Dožić cultivated crystal resonators that function as a kind of geological-chemical loudspeaker. By constructing these speakers, he references the historical use of Rochelle salt in the manufacture of commercial tweeters. Through their sonic interventions, Bojanić, Dožić, Giunio, and Gladović breathe life into inert crystals, allowing them to vibrate at the threshold of audibility.
The work was originally presented as an intimate sound performance for small groups. For Device_art, it has been expanded into a multimedia installation accompanied by a series of live sound performances. Reinterpreting obsolete sound technologies, the artists explore poetic intersections between science and fiction, silence and sound, hauntology and media archaeology. Inspired by the role of piezoelectricity in the research of Marie and Pierre Curie, as well as by their fascination with spiritualist séances, the artists invite audiences not only to experience the installation but also to attend intimate listening sessions with the crystals. In these encounters, the crystals become channels of communication between sound technologies and the supernatural.
Project by: Tin Dožić
Sound collaborators and co-authors: Ivana Bojanić, Andro Giunio, and Miodrag Gladović
Technical collaborator: Miodrag Gladović
Resonant box fabrication: Jakov Habjan
Curatorial support: Davorka Begović | KONTEJNER
Supported by the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.
Tin Dožić (HR)
Tin Dožić graduated in Psychology from the Faculty of Croatian Studies at the University of Zagreb and in New Media from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. His work Songs for the Anthropocene (Pjesme za antropocen) received the Golden Watermelon Award at the Media Mediterranea Festival in 2018. He was a finalist for the Radoslav Putar Award in 2019 and is an alumnus of the 2019/2020 WHW Academy. As a member of the collaborative team comprising Sven Sorić, Hrvoje Spudić, Sara Salamon, and himself, Dožić received the Young Artists Award at the 55th Zagreb Salon of Applied Arts and Design for the visual identity of the 30th Music Biennale Zagreb (MBZ). As one half of the artistic duo Dožić & Udovčić, he received the same award at the 58th Zagreb Salon of Applied Arts and Design for the project Forest Cabin (Šumska koliba).
Ivana Bojanić (HR)
Ivana Bojanić is a dance and vocal artist whose practice explores how affect, imagination, and relational conditions shape sensory experience and our relationship to reality through performance, voice, and materiality. She graduated in Contemporary Dance from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and completed part of her studies at the University of the Arts Helsinki.She is the author of the works KHCOLD: prolonged longing (Galerija Močvara), HIHI (nominated for Best Choreography), and We Were Not Here (Nismo bile ovdje, co-created with Viktorija Bubalo). She has also performed in Urobor and Oh, Mary Shelley (for which she received a nomination for Best Performer, directed by Silvija Marchig), as well as O and DOWL by Sonja Pregrad, which received the 2021 Award for Best Collective Performance, among other productions. As a vocalist, she collaborates on the performance projects Anti-Ambient of Ceremonial Cigarettes and Singing Snake (Sometimes Staged) by Niko Mihaljević.
Andro Giunio (HR)
Andro Giunio is a graphic designer, artist, and Assistant Professor at the Department of Media Design, University North in Koprivnica. His artistic practice focuses on sound performance and experimental music, both independently and in collaboration with artists working in new media art, music, and contemporary dance.His work includes composing for the project Picture Made of Sound (Slika od zvuka) of the Croatian Radio Channel Three, and performances at festivals including Showroom of Contemporary Sound (Izlog suvremenog zvuka) at the Student Centre and Gibanja at KONTEJNER and the Zagreb Dance Centre (ZPC). He has presented multichannel sound compositions as part of the Neighbourhood Lens (Kvartovski objektiv) project at Gallery VN and within the residency programme of the Miroslav Kraljević Gallery. He collaborates with the performance collective BADco. and is the co-author of an expanded cinema audiovisual work produced by the 25 FPS Festival.
Miodrag Gladović (HR)
Miodrag Gladović is an electrical engineer, musician, and multimedia artist. For many years he has been a prominent figure on the contemporary art scene, both as one half of the artistic duo Lightune.G with Bojan Gagić and through his independent practice. Combining engineering expertise with exceptional creativity, he consistently contributes to the innovation of the projects in which he participates.His work is shaped by a combination of punk sensibility and DIY ethics, more than three decades of musical experience across stylistically diverse bands and projects, the integration of new technologies into artistic practice, and a strong affinity for contemporary music and art. These qualities have established Gladović as one of the leading figures on the contemporary experimental music scene, as well as within broader innovative artistic practices.
