Saša Spačal: Transversal is a Loop

2019

Saša Spačal: Transversal is a Loop

About

Transversal Is a Loop is a fifty-minute long sound composition by Saša Spačal (whose previous work has already been released by Kamizdat under the name agapea), in which she, together and in dialogue with the crickets Acheta domesticus, delves into how to think music, sound manipulation and composition. The process of making this recording rests on Saša's years-long research into biological systems through art and science methodologies and physical manifestations in the form of objects and spatial interventions. Her work is thus inextricably linked to critical reflection on the human relation to and impact on biological ecosystems on a planetary, microscopic and energetic level. The entanglement of humans and crickets in this sound work aims to underline the trajectory of a journey, which–after going through several cycles, inter-species feedback loops and considerations of how to survive as a species–ends up, through commodification, at the starting point.

Saša Spačal is an artist working at the intersection of living systems research, contemporary and sound art. Her work focuses primarily on the posthuman condition, where human beings exist and act as one of many elements in the ecosystem and not as sovereigns. Therefore abandoning the Cartesian system of classification and accepting the fact that the field of technology has expanded not only from hardware to software but also to wetware resulting in hybrid phenomena inscribed in mechanical, digital and organic logic within biopolitics and necropolitics.

er work was exhibited and performed at venues and festivals such as Ars Electronica Festival (AT), Prix Cube Exhibition (FR), Transmediale Festival (DE), Athens Digital Arts Festival (GR), Centre de Cultura Contemporània Barcelona – CCCB (ES), Perm Museum of Contemporary Art (RUS), Onassis Cultural Center Athens (GR), Chronos Art Center (CHN), Laboratoria Art & Science Foundation / New Tretyakov Gallery (RUS), Prague City Gallery (CZ), Cynetart Festival (DE), National Art Museum of China (CHN), Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (SI), Kapelica Gallery (SI), Device_art (CRO), Art Laboratory Berlin (DE), Kiblix Festival (SI), Gallery of Contemporary Art Celje (SI), Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina (SRB), Lisboa Soa Festival (PT), Sonica Festival (SI). Her works received awards and nominations at Prix Ars Electronica, Ars Electronica Starts Prize, Japan Media Art Award, Prix Cube, New Technology Art Award and New Aesthetica Prize.

Tracklist of Entanglements

  • Cycles

  • Interspecies Feedback Loop

  • Mode of Survival

Availability

Free streaming, downloads (name your price) and limited edition USBs are available through our Bandcamp shop kamizdat.bandcamp.com
Some rights reserved under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence www.creativecommons.org/licences

Credits

črički/crickets Acheta domesticus · sound
Saša Spačal · sound, liner notes
Jedrt Maležič Lapuh · proofreading
Tina Ivezić · graphic design
Maruša Hren · usb booklet design and manufacture
Luka Prinčič · usb booklet design, editorial, production
Stella Ivšek · Kamizdat Rentgen visuals, streaming, design and promotion

Special thanks

Michal Kindernay (Agosto Foundation)
Irena Pivka, Brane Zorman (CONA – Institute for Contemporary Arts Processing)

Cycles composition was commissioned for radioCona:0.2425 FM Exhibition in 2016.
Transversal is a Loop project was developed as part of Agosto Foundation residency in 2018.

Support

Media support: Radio Študent Ljubljana
Financially supported by City of Ljubljana, Ministry of Culture RS

Performances

2022: Transversal is a Loop, curators Christine Schörkhuber, Stefan Voglsinger, Ulla Rauter and Veronika Mayer, Klangmanifeste, Echoraum, Vienna, Austria
2021: Transversal is a Loop, curators Lona Galkis, Sonar Park, IMA – Institut für Medienarchäologie, Lames, St. Pölten, Austria
2020: Transversal is a Loop, curators Shu Lea Cheang, Tanja Brandmayr, Franz Xaver, STWST48x6 MORE LESS, Stadtwerkstatt, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
2020: Transversal is a Loop, curator Juraj Hoppan, Sensorium Festival: Beyond the Sound, Bratislava, Slovakia
2019: Transversal is a Loop, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Previous events

  1. , Kamizdat.si

PHOTO