David Ferrando Giraut. Speech Prosthesis (An Alchemical Conversation)
Winning project of the DKV Seguros - Álvarez Margaride Production Grant
Speech Prosthesis (An Alchemical Conversation), 2014. Video installation with quadraphonic sound. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Speech Prosthesis (An Alchemical Conversation) tries to question the fraught relationship between scientific research and political decision-making processes, at a time when it is impossible to continue ignoring the impact humankind has had on the planet over the last century, an era recently coined Anthropocene (a new geological era marked by the profound transformations anthropogenic action has produced on Earth).
The project comprises an audiovisual installation – a large wall projection mural and quadraphonic sound – plus a digital animation piece on a monitor.
Taking the reform of the Energy Law in Spain as a backdrop, the artist carries out a series of interviews with a varied group of people (an environmental activist, a lawyer, an economist, a geologist, a meteorologist, a specialist in health and environmental pollution, a lecturer in ecology and oceanographer and Oceanography and climate change specialist and a philosopher of science). Extracts from these recordings are then played over four speakers that have a sculptural quality, bringing to mind the alchemical symbols of the four elements of nature. This reference is picked up in the sonic base reproduced on each of these speakers – composed by musician Nigel Yang – and in the wall projection, in which a collection of digitally-created contemporary everyday objects are exhibited alongside utensils from different historical moments and civilisations with which you could say they share a common genealogy. This collection offers proof of the overlap between the four natural elements and their technological domestication as one of the defining features of human culture throughout the passing of time, questioning the perception of nature and culture as compartmentalised realities.
Amanecer, the piece for monitor, presents us with a digitally-animated character with familiar features who recites a list of major technological advances for human development in chronological order. As the rate increases, the animation software finds it more difficult to synchronise the character’s lip movements to the sound of the words.
The exhibition takes it name from a notion that the philosopher, sociologist and science historian Bruno Latour used to refer to a series of processes and infrastructures through which scientific researchers manage to “give a voice” to those non-human elements which, despite forming a basic part of our existence, they lack a language.
Speech Prosthesis is the winner project of the II DKV Seguros Álvarez Margaride Production Grant and has been produced at Plataforma 0 Production Centre of LABoral.
Presentation of the results of the residence, June 20 at 19:00 [+]
Opening Friday, June 20 at 19:30
Coproduction:
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Acknowledgements:
Jose Alba, Ricardo Anadón, Jose Antonio Ballesteros García, Manuel Mora, Paco Ramos, Adonina Tardón, Luis Miguel Terente
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