Authors: Újházi Adrienn and Marija Šumarac
Video/Sound installation
The project Microbial concert is a method of research with sound with a long duration. The documented biological material-microbial cellulose is used in the experiment, which is presented in a visual form of video installation. We use sound as a tool of communication with a living material to explore the process of creating music and sound-image in stages. During period of exploration, we can realize new ways of its own development and reproduction.
The concept of the project turns into a long duration idea in realization with the presentation of a living material that is in constant metamorphosis. The newly researched microbial cellulose -SCOBY- material is created through fermentation and it is presented in a new form with the help of hybridization of sound. The first stage of the project is the process of microbial reproduction and biofilm creation, it is documented in the medium of photography and transferred to sound. The second stage of the process is manipulation, the process to investigate the formation of the next, secondary living bio-film, with the samples which are taken with the help of sound signals. The unity of sound is presented in the space that gives it importance for shaping a new hybrid living sample of “mother culture”. This process would be documented with (time lapse) video – This approach and option of documentation gets us to think more and evolve our project into new stages.
The constantly evolving material that we present in the medium of sound (and moving images) is like a concert which we cannot hear with our hears, and it is different from the ones we are used to. The questions we ask are – “Can the living world around us produce its own music?” and “How will its music change during its development?”. We can only get answers by going through the whole process, because the process of making music is something that revives, builds, vibrates and breathes like living organisms do (like we do). With this experiment we involve sound as a tool to shape and create a “new” life form.
