RESILENCE. Future Soundscapes & Affect Mining in Urban Ecosystems

While the future cities of cognitive capitalism emerge as contexts of trans-disciplinary engagement (artistic and technological), the aural dimension of sound provides an immersive context for our understanding of improved social coexistence. RESILENCE redefines social and creative dynamics through sound in order to redesign the public sphere as a resonant environment.

In the context of RESILENCE, a project of S+T+ARTS, the European Commission’s initiative for science, technology, and the arts, presented in collaboration with BASE and curated by Fundamental Research, einaidea and forty five degrees, all artworks seek to propel, disseminate, and transform the emotional magma of our time towards collective awareness.

Installation of Marcin Dudek, Alevtina Kakhitze. ©Rafa Jacinto

Through art-driven explorations of science and technology, RESILENCE gathers the outcomes of fifteen international art residencies. The project challenges established conceptions of urban spaces, using sound to chart the affective tissue and anthropic ecologies of future cities.

  • Performance Force is Present

  • by Brigitta Muntendorf

  • ©Rafa Jacinto

The exhibition design for RESILENCE was conceived and developed by forty five degrees in response to a specific challenge: the need to acoustically adapt a 2,000-square-meter concrete hall, whose reverberation levels were unsuitable for a sound-based exhibition. This constraint became the conceptual challenge and starting point, asking a fundamental material question:

Which kind of material could acoustically adapt this large space while also meeting both aesthetic and sustainable standards?

  • Installation Alevtina Kakhitze

  • Installation Lugh O'Neill ©Berta Gutierrez

Installation Guillem Serrahima. ©Rafa Jacinto

As architects and designers, we believe we can no longer afford to participate in a waste-producing model, especially not in the context of temporary exhibitions.

Departing from an ethos of care for the life and afterlife of the materials we use, we developed a modular architectural system made entirely from reused components and recycled cellulose. Conceived as a low-impact, temporary infrastructure, the installation minimizes waste while ensuring post-exhibition reuse and/or recyclability.

  • ©Berta Gutierrez

  • ©Berta Gutierrez

Artists in Residence

Ari Benjamin Meyers and Halsey Solutions, Brigitta Muntendorf, Alevtina Kakhidze, Lea Luka Sikau with Denisa Pubalova, Loukia Tsafoulia and Severino Alfonso with up2metric, Lugh O’Neill with Temporary Pleasure, Marcin Dudek with OOF Gallery, Wendy Chua, Joyce Koh, Gustavo Maggio  with Playersjourney, Paul Louis with Impulse Audio Lab, Wen Liu, Alexander Hackl, Abel & Carlo Korinsky, Tim Otto Roth, Caroline Claus, Andrea Cera, and Guillem Serrahima

Installation Blooms ©Rafa Jacinto

  • Installation Blooms ©Rafa Jacinto

©Berta Gutierrez

Beneficiary partners: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Fundamental Research (Belgium), Maurice Benayoun (France/Hong Kong), Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (Germany), Maastricht University (Netherlands), Thessaloniki Concert Hall (Greece), University of Genoa (Italy), University Pompeu Fabra (Spain).

Curatorial Team: Manuel Cirauqui, Berta Gutierrez, Harlan Levy

Exhibition Coordination: Manuel Cirauqui, Berta Gutierrez

Design: Berta Gutierrez, Carolina Contreras, with the support of Alkistis Thomidou

Technical partners: Rebiennale and Acosorb