Mark Niskanen & Jani-Matti Salo: Murmurations
Murmurations, created in collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aaula, evokes cultural memory and aesthetics of the past while attempting to expose translocal truths of the present. Murmurations creates a visceral sense of physical proximity in a time when distancing and division are the forced norm.
The work is based on anonymous, fragmentary passages of sensory observations collected during sensobiographic walks. These walks, conducted near bodies of water in the United States and Europe, are multisensory, transgenerational investigations, producing new understandings of the changes in people’s sensory environmental relationships. In Murmurations, these observations are divided into three parts – the no longer, the now, and the not yet.
The installation creates an experience of oscillation between the private and the public through the use of psychoacoustics and hyperrealism in sound. A visitor experiences the whispered sentiments alone, while being physically surrounded by others. The situation forms an opportune moment for a sudden, momentary introspection and subjective contemplation in a public space.