Upstream (the Seine)
Jan 13, 2023, 11:16 AM
"Last May an Orca was found to be swimming upstream the Seine. An effort to redirect the mammal back to the sea by using sound recordings failed as the animal seemed to be gravely ill and disoriented. Bioacoustics experts mentioned that the sounds the animal was producing were most likely distress calls. A decision to euthanise the whale was taken, yet soon enough, the mammal was found dead.
"“Upstream (the Seine)” utilises the recordings of the Orcinus Orca species in their natural habitat in the Antarctic provided by Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in 2022. The piece is an effort to auralise the fact that more and more species demonstrate strange behaviours that are deviating from the norm.
"By using strictly the concrete recordings of the Orcas as source material and through the language of electroacoustic music and sound transformation techniques, the artist re-imagines the journey of the whale from the Antarctic to the Seine; from the natural to the unnatural, from health to illness as being driven by an inexplicable, almost mystifying force ultimately leading it to its demise. Through this paradigm the artist attempts to underline the alarming increasing frequency of the occurrence of such phenomena."
Killer whale reimagined by Luc Messinezis.
Part of the Polar Sounds project, a collaboration between Cities and Memory, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Explore the project in full at http://citiesandmemory.com/polar-sounds.
"“Upstream (the Seine)” utilises the recordings of the Orcinus Orca species in their natural habitat in the Antarctic provided by Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in 2022. The piece is an effort to auralise the fact that more and more species demonstrate strange behaviours that are deviating from the norm.
"By using strictly the concrete recordings of the Orcas as source material and through the language of electroacoustic music and sound transformation techniques, the artist re-imagines the journey of the whale from the Antarctic to the Seine; from the natural to the unnatural, from health to illness as being driven by an inexplicable, almost mystifying force ultimately leading it to its demise. Through this paradigm the artist attempts to underline the alarming increasing frequency of the occurrence of such phenomena."
Killer whale reimagined by Luc Messinezis.
Part of the Polar Sounds project, a collaboration between Cities and Memory, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Explore the project in full at http://citiesandmemory.com/polar-sounds.