Sonic Cartography
This study documents the process of creation of the artistic based performance from the field research made by Vivian Hernandez after her stay in the residency program “Landscape in state of emergency” for Konvent Zero multidisciplinary art center in Cataluña. Where she develops a sound piece created in collaboration with her body, field recordings of the territory, and the Llobregat river. That it later transformed into a performance and a collective listening setup.
In a performative act, her body, the water and the glass vessels work simultaneously as containers of the story. The sound pieces and the water are both contained in the vessels waiting to be touched by her to take part in the storytelling. The performance is designed to invite the audience into a collective listening along the banks of the Llobregat river, and an opportunity to explore the concept of sentimental cartography.
Sentimental Cartography is a concept that I like to use to refer to the experience of feeling a territory by other means outside of the ocularcentrism perspective. Where the storytelling of a place is position as the main concern, and the poetry is one of its best allies to unfold the story on an emotional path with the audience.
The project has its starts in the residency call “Landscapes in state of Emergency” for the multidisciplinary art center -Konvent Zero in Cal Rosal, Cataluña in November 2023. With this opportunity I was interested in combining not just the remote sensing analyses that I did of the region while I was living in Germany. But also, take the time to hear, walk and record some local and general thoughts concerning the river and this territory. To understand deeply the state and co-relationship between the inhabitants of the area and the river Llobregat. By combining both positions, I was able to create a clearer image of the drought that the region is confronted with.
