In the work Chronolith, consisting of a complex multi-channel sound composition and stone slab installation, the bioacoustic group Jata C investigates the acoustics and temporal dimensions of stone structures, as well as their sustainability and interdependence with humans.
Jata C (beepblip, OR poiesis, Boštjan Perovšek, Bojana Šaljić Podešva, Brane Zorman) poses the questions: How to listen to stone and think in geological time? Is it possible to understand the wider social context of man's unsustainable exploitation of the environment through the sonority of stones? And if so, can this help create a more just and more reciprocal relationship with nature?
The artists obtained the sound material for the composition via field recordings of various locations and quarries. The installation serves as s stone instrument, a sensorial extension of the human body, with which the composition and the vibrations of the stones are fed back into the materiality of the slabs with the help of transducers, forming a feedback loop.
During the production of the work, the artists collaborated with scientists from the fields of micropaleontology, geology and physics, as well as the supporter of the project, the company Marmor Hotavlje. The work Chronolith is produced by the CONA Institute for Contemporary Arts Processing for the programme at the Steklenik Gallery.
Jata C (SI)
Jata C is an artistic group whose members share a passion for field recordings, bioacoustics and sound ecology. Their research combines auditory perception with ecological and social issues, expanding them with scientific discourse and original performances of sonic environments. In their compositions, they transform field recordings of their immediate surroundings into speculative projections of the future and delicate perceptions of the present.
To capture the various environmental acoustic phenomena, they employ a vast array of field recording devices central to the so-called deep listening and a non-anthropocentric relation with biotic and non-biotic entities. In their performances they follow a general score, leaving enough space for improvisation and live interpretation. Currently, the group has presented to the public two other compositions, namely ICEmeltings (2019) and Bibaret JC210120 (2020).
The members of Jata C are primarily active as independent artists, but the connectedness in the context of the group enriches and reflects their own styles and views and offers a completely new context for understanding their joint creative practice.
Ida Hiršenfelder (beepblip) is a sound and intermedia artist. Petra Kapš (OR poiesis) is an artist and researcher of sound, sound perception and poetic performance. Boštjan Perovšek, an artist, composer and sound designer, who composes experimental electroacoustic music. Bojana Šaljić Podešva as a composer dedicates most of her time to the research of sound as an entity that affects the listener, both physically and in terms of content. Brane Zorman is an intermedia artist, composer, sound manipulator, producer and curator.
