if we vanish – in search of natural silence
Felix Deufel & Nikhil Nagaraj
Video installation: 15-minute loop / Listening room soundscape / Composition: 76-minute endless loop / Series swim / October 5–15, 2023
The installation “if we vanish” by sound artists Nikhil Nagaraj (Bangalore, India) and Felix Deufel (Leipzig, Germany) is an immersive journey to some of the last untouched places on Earth: tropical rainforests in South and North India, and the high-altitude regions of the Himalayas. Set within a scenic video installation, three soundscapes come into contrast: biophony (sounds of non-human living beings), geophony (natural sounds not produced by living organisms), and anthropophony (sounds created by humans).
Sound pollution caused by humans is increasingly overlaying these original soundscapes worldwide. The immense negative impact on ecosystems and the health of their inhabitants is still largely unknown. “if we vanish” aims to raise awareness of these changes in the environmental soundscape.
Since 2017, Nagaraj and Deufel have collaborated extensively in the field of 3D audio research and production. Their joint work explores how sound and music influence human perception and the narrative and visual associative power of sound in space. In 2022, their team spent forty days on an expedition in India, capturing the sonic heritage of untouched habitats with 3D recording equipment to document it before its inevitable disappearance. These newly preserved soundscapes form the core audio material of the installation and can be scientifically analyzed to study the state of ecosystems.
Credits
A project by Nikhil Nagaraj and Felix Deufel
Photography and Videography: Xenia Gordonia, Phil Jungschlaeger
Project Management: Spriha Nakhare
With kind support from: Prince Claus Fund, Goethe-Institut,
Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore, and theisro
swim 2023
With the series swim, ZiMMT invites audiences in 2023 to (re)discover their surroundings through the act of listening. Ten concerts and four sound installations offer acoustic experiences that help sharpen our awareness of the environment—either individually or collectively.
Sixteen local and international artists are part of swim. Many of them work with everyday sounds and field recordings, thematically exploring the human-made changes in our acoustic environment during the current era—the Anthropocene. Others focus on psychoacoustic effects. All of them create immersive sound spaces.
Through three-day microresidencies, the artists are given the opportunity to develop their works on-site using 3D audio technology, allowing for new experimental approaches. All concerts are streamed live in high-quality binaural audio—offering a spatial sound experience both on location and worldwide.
