SYNESTAESIA 55/18

SYNESTÆSIA 55/18 is an analog audiovisual installation. Developped in 2020 as part of the first edition of the MEKASUBA Festival, it should have been premiered at the beginning of March 2020. Postponed twice due to several force majeure events including a storm and a global pandemic, the festival finally took place in June 2021 at the Alte Feuerwache in Cologne. In the meantime, SYNESTÆSIA 55/18 had already been showcased in early 2021 as part of an open day programm at the autonomous cultural association Niehler Freiheit.

Based on the phenomenon of synestæsia, a "perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway" (Wikipedia), SYNESTÆSIA 55/18 is a multilayered interdisciplinary work that combines fotography, stage-, light- and sound design to create an immersive sensorial experience. Through specific combinations of visual and auditive elements aswell as a complete spacial and acoustic fashioning of the showroom, the audience is invited to dive into their perception of the textures and atmospheres that they can see and hear in a synestætic way.

The installation is conceived to be presented in a workshop of any kind, preferably a metal workshop. This room will then be transormed into a museum-like space displaying 6 pictures and a stereo soundscape made of field recordings of museum and metal workshop atmospheres. The visible and the actual room start blending into one another. By each picture you will then see a pair of headphones. While listening to each picture's individual soundtrack you will be isolated of the rest of the room and able to listen closely to a sonic translation of the picture's texture. I realised these soundtracks by treating the pictures as notated music and litterally translating it into sound. Each soundtrack is 55 seconds long and has 3 different sonic elements - percussive, atmospheric and melodic.

All sonic and visual textures displayed in this work were captured either in a museum or a metal workshop. The details of each picture were captured either from a piece of art or from a piece of waste. All were treated with the same respect and curiosity for the richness of their texture.