The Floating Islands
in collaboration with
Maria Karpushina
Insel der Jugend, Treptow, Berlin
Soundwalk, 2023
The Floating Islands
in collaboration with
Maria Karpushina
Insel der Jugend, Treptow, Berlin
Soundwalk, 2023
The floating islands is an artistic research project that investigates public spaces from the perspective of listening in motion. Soundwalks as an artistic practice have become (due to the Corona Pandemic) a new possibility to think differently the public space and site-specific art. Listeners can experience this soundwalk using their own smartphones, a free app, and a pair of headphones. These fictional habitats can only be experienced on what I called The floating islands, which are in the app on-site GPS marked zones. The listener physical presence in the place is needed to activate the walk.
The water area nearby Die Insel der Jugend (Island of Youth) in the eastern part of the Treptower Park is the place where different but interconnected sonic archipelagos merge and emerge. The focus of this work is on the complex notion of communication and common space (not only human-related) in a post-capitalist, gentrified city, as well as the various factors that influence it and its immediate environment. The aquatic perspective allows an open and holistic engagement with the future of public space and collective narratives. In The floating islands the soundscape acts as a tide of information, different from musical moments, reminiscent of the texture of water waves. These waves explore the interconnectivity of local ecologies using fictional motifs.
