years of sameness
2020
18:08min (loop)
Link upon request

”years of sameness” is based on a research of choirs, that are established for rehabilitation of people with aphasia. Trough singing familiar songs, people who had lost their ability to speak can gain back access to language.

For the work, an archive of songs from a choir for people with aphasia are run trough an algorithm designed to create ”emotional music” – trough this translation process, a new set of compositions is created on the base of the choirs recordings (instruments, scale, melody). In the procedure, language gets ereased by default and solely the hook lines and melodies recognized as ”emotional” remain. At times, this translation process fails creating a cathartic yet unsettling overall composition.

The work is explicitly site-specific. By installing it in a library, the work can be percieved as a commentary on an ordered canon of knowledge, which manifests itself in the object of the book. On the other hand, the work is also characterized by its proximity to the object - for it functions as a container for language and memory as well.

HFBK Hamburg graduate show, 2020