Peter Tomaž Dobrila: Hollow Sound, sonic sculpture space installation

The consideration of how to present sound inside space is the starting point behind the project Hollow Sound. The author, Peter Tomaž Dobrila, sets up a mobile, portable 3D sound recording system, and interprets it within public, gallery, and social spaces as a sound installation consisting of both, several recorded sources originating from various locations, as well as a direct transmission of the signal from the urban, or natural, environment.

The transposition of sound from the external natural and urban space into the artificial, or artistic gallery setting, gives it the characteristics of an alien object, of an external element, of something unnatural and artificial, of something artistic. By installing such a sound element, or elements, into the social space and into the gallery, the sound acquires the title of a piece of art, an artwork, which then, by being transferred into any other kind of space, open or closed, does not travel further as something natural, like for example a sound from nature, but rather this structure, having undergone various influences, including deliberate interventions or unintentional disturbances, is transferred as a three-dimensional sonic sculpture. This transformed conglomeration transcends into space-time as something originally natural, indeed, but at the same time as something that has been processed irreversibly by means of our impact and action, and thus given an entirely new character.

The work refers to both personal as well as environmental and consequently planetary considerations that merge art with science, ecology, and emphasize the sonic pollution of the environment, which is transformed as a virtual intervention in space into a beautiful, artistic work. By means of the transformation from the natural environment through the artistic space and the artistic process into the gallery space, it highlights the artificial nature of virtuality and the naturalness of reality, thereby recontextualizing the co-existence of man as the creator of art, and nature as the starting point for (co-)existence. As a virtual sculpture, it focuses on the perception of the world through audio perceptions, which, through the transformation from the natural into the artificial space, relativize the archetypal "beautiful" and "good", and the "ugly" and "bad". Even if "pleasant" and "unpleasant" may be the appropriate synonyms that we attribute to sound, that define our sensations, it seems that it is indeed the sound that in turn defines how we feel, even more than images (visual stimuli), though not addressing, at this point, the other senses.

The transposition of a sonic image from the natural, urban environment and a direct transmission from the external to the internal, gallery space, where it comes in contact with the visitors (whose presence, number, temperature, noise, and intentional interventions will, of course, (in)directly shape and alter the sonic texture), emphasizes the naturalness of all parameters, and the connection between man and nature. As co-creators of the natural, as creators of the artificial and the artistic; as receivers and creators we sonify all the time, we produce and absorb sounds, not only through hearing, but through an integral bodily perception, and we can give back to the space whatever was received in the chosen moment, thereby extending our perception of space to the environment, which we all affect. It is for this reason that we are responsible for the ubiquitous ambience in which we all co-exist, regardless of the closeness, distance, or presence.
Project Hollow Sound opens on Thursday, 29 December 2016 at 7 p. m. and 9 p. m., and will later be available every day at 7 p. m. to the visitors' request.

Producer: Association for Art and Audio-Visual Production CODE BLUE Co-producers: Association for Culture and Education KIBLA, Association for Contemporary Art X-OP Support: Municipality of Maribor, EU Program Creative Europe

Info: Peter-Tomaz.Dobrila@x-op.eu