According to the Renaissance mathematician Evangelista Torricelli, the discoverer of atmospheric pressure: “We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of air, which is known by irrefutable experiments to have weight.” The atmosphere is the ocean and the ocean is the atmosphere, with its turbulence, presence and microclimate. The sonority of the deep sea, in the pressure, atmospheres that our body cannot reach, unknown sonorities are handed over to us. The work questions the acoustics of the atmosphere at a point –1,233 m deep in the Adriatic Sea and climbs through the sound barrier to 1,233 meters above sea level. The audio-visual narrative talks about our (dis)connection with the water situation, the aquaforming that is happening due to our industrialisation of seascapes deep below the decks of our ships.
Line | +1233m –1233m is a poetic audiovisual work that deals with the sonority of the sea in a vertical strip deep under and above the surface to encourage reflection on new (ecological) realities in the age of the Anthropocene. The vertical movements between sea layers account for one of the biggest migration routes in the marine environment, used daily and seasonally by millions of animals in all the world’s oceans and seas to constitute continuous synchronised movement between surface and deeper ocean layers. In the exhibited project, the artist symbolically discusses such movement by referring to one of the deepest points in the southern Adriatic (–1233m).
At the heart of this intermedia artwork is the concept of empathy and solidarity in coexistence with more-than-human entities. As a counterpoint, the artist highlights the importance of one’s awareness of the environment one shares with the Other, encouraging critical reflection on its ecological vulnerability.
The work was designed using a set of data on temperature, salinity and hardness of the waters of the southern Adriatic from the last 30 years, and the measurements taken by the artist in 2021 and 2022 and analysed in collaboration with the University of Dubrovnik’s Institute for Marine and Coastal Research, and the artificial intelligence expert Tanja Minarik. By sonifying databases of biogeochemical impacts on daily vertical migrations, acquired using assorted remote sensing instruments, and inserting her own sound recordings made below and above the water surface, the artist reveals yet unexplored sonorous deep-sea environments, placing them in dialogue with the airiness of the landscape above.
Evangelista Torricelli, a Renaissance mathematician and the architect of the atmospheric pressure theory, wrote: “We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of the element air, which by unquestioned experiments is known to have weight.” The atmosphere is the ocean, and the ocean is the atmosphere.
Line | +1233m –1233m is a call to immerse oneself in a space of continually shifting under- and above-water sounds. It is an invitation to re-assess one’s relationship to the environment, to enter the zone of aquatocene, which is the result of the industrialisation of seascapes deep below the decks of ships.
Artist: Robertina ŠEBJANIČ
A.I. video sound programming: Tanja MINARIK
Object manufacturing: David DROLC Audio Mastering: Mauricio VALDES
8-channel Audio Composition Support: KUBER/HEKA/Pina Koper
Text: Robertina ŠEBJANIČ and Maja LOZIĆ
Expert advisors: dr. Alenka MALEJ, dr. Matjaž LIČER; Gjino ŠUTIĆ (UR Institute); dr. Marijana HURE in dr. Valter KOZUL (Institute for Marine and Coastal Research, University of Dubrovnik)
Producer: Irena PIVKA Production: Cona for Gallery Steklenik, 2022/2023
Venue of premiere: Kino Šiška 2022 Venue of solo exhibition Gallery Kresija 2023
more on web page of Production: Cona for Gallery Steklenik:
Booklet: LIVING WITH THE SUBAQUATIC Through Dialogue, Accompaniment and Care in the Work of Robertina Šebjanič
Text: Lena ORTEGA ATRISTAIN
English proofreading: Jana RENEE WILCOXEN
Slovene translating and editing: Melita SILIČ
Design: Matej TOMAŽIN
Cover image: Robertina ŠEBJANIČ
Production: Cona, zavod za procesiranje sodobne umetnosti, 2022
Link to the artist’s notebook in pdf.
The notebook in physical form is available at headquarters of CONA at Trg prekomorskih brigad 1, 1000 Ljubljana. Please send a prior notice to info@cona.si to arrange the time and date for your visit.
Po besedah renesančnega matematika Evangeliste Torricellija, odkritelja atmosferskega tlaka, »Živimo potopljeni na dnu oceana zraka, za katerega je znano po neizpodbitnih poskusih, da ima težo«. Ozračje je ocean in ocean je ozračje, s svojo turbulenco, prezenco in mikroklimo.
Zvočnost globokega morja, v pritisku, atmosferah, ki jih naše telo ne zmore doseči, se prepredajo nam neznane zvočnosti. Delo presprašuje zvočnosti atmosfere na točki -1233 m globine Jadranskega morja in se preko zvočnega prepredanja povzpne na 1233 nadmorske višine.
Zvočno vizualna pripoved govori o naši (ne)povezanost z vodnimi situacija,aquaformiranjem, ki se dogaja zaradi naše industrializacije morskih krajin globoko pod palubami naših ladij.
Linija | +1233 m –1233 m je poetično zvočno-vizualno delo, ki prikazuje zvočnost morja v navpičnem pasu globoko pod in nad gladino morja ter spodbuja obiskovalko_ca k razmisleku o novih (ekoloških) realnostih v času antropocena.
Vertikalno gibanje med plastmi v morju je ena največjih selitvenih poti v morskem svetu, ki jo vsak dan opravi na milijone živali v vseh svetovnih oceanih in morjih. Poteka dnevno in sezonsko, kar pomeni neprestano sinhronizirano gibanje med površinskimi in globokimi plastmi oceana. V pričujočem projektu avtorica simbolično naslavlja tovrstno gibanje z eno najglobljih točk v južnem Jadranu (–1233 m).
Jedro pričujočega intermedijskega dela tvori koncept empatije in solidarnosti v sobivanju z entitetami, ki so več kot človeške (more-than-human). Kot protiutež temu umetnica poudarja pomembnost odnosa do okolja, ki si ga delimo z Drugim, in spodbuja kritičen razmislek o njegovi ekološki ranljivosti. Delo je oblikovano iz nabora podatkov o temperaturi, slanosti in trdoti voda južnega Jadrana v zadnjih 30 letih ter meritev, ki jih je umetnica izvedla med letoma 2021 in 2022 ter preučila s pomočjo sodelavcev Inštituta za morske in obalne raziskave Univerze v Dubrovniku ter strokovnjakinje za umetno inteligenco Tanje Mina-
rik. S sonifikacijo podatkovnih baz bio-geo-kemičnih vplivov na dnevne vertikalne migracije, pridobljenih z različnimi instrumenti daljinskega zaznavanja, in z uporabo lastnih zvočnih posnetkov, pridobljenih pod in nad vodno gladino, umetnica razkriva neraziskana sonorična okolja morskih globin in jih v dialogu prepleta z zračnostjo krajine nad morsko gladino.
Evangelista Torricelli, renesančni matematik in odkritelj teorije zračnega tlaka, je zapisal: »Živimo potopljeni na dnu zračnega oceana in neizpodbitni eksperimenti dokazujejo, da ima ta zrak težo.« Ozračje je ocean in ocean je ozračje.
Linija | +1233 m –1233 m je tako poziv k potopitvi v prostor nenehno spreminjajočih se pod- in nadvodnih zvokov. Vabi nas k ponovnemu ovrednotenju našega odnosa do okolja, v območje aquatocena, ki je rezultat industrializacije morskih krajin globoko pod palubami ladij.
Umetnica: Robertina ŠEBJANIČ
U.I. video and zvočno programiranje: Tanja MINARIK
Izdelava objekta: David DROLC Mastering zvoka: Mauricio VALDES
Oblikovanje 8-kanalne zvočne kompozicije ob podpori: KUBER/HEKA/Pina Koper
Spremni tekst: Robertina ŠEBJANIČ in Maja LOZIĆ
Strokovno svetovanje: dr. Alenka MALEJ, dr. Matjaž LIČER; Gjino ŠUTIĆ (UR Institute); dr. Marijana HURE in dr. Valter KOZUL (Inštitut za morska in obalna raziskovanja Univerze v Dubrovniku). Producentka: Irena PIVKA
Produkcija: Cona za galerijo Steklenik, 2022/2023
Prizorišče: Kino Šiška 2022 Prizorišče, samostjne razstave Galerija Kresija 2023
Knjižica: ŽIVLJENJE S PODVODNIM SVETOM, o dialogu, tovarištvu in skrbi v delu Robertine Šebjanič
Besedilo: Lena ORTEGA ATRISTAIN
Angleška lektura: Jana RENEE WILCOXEN
Prevod v slovenščino in lektura: Melita SILIČ
Oblikovanje zvezka: Matej TOMAŽIN
Grafika naslovnice: Robertina ŠEBJANIČ
Produkcija: Cona, zavod za procesiranje sodobne umetnosti, 2022
Povezava na zvezek v pdf obliki.
Zvezek v fizični obliki je na voljo na sedežu CONE, na naslov Trg prekomorskih brigad 1, 1000 Ljubljana, s predhodno najavo na info@cona.si.
Line +1233m –1233m by Robertina Šebjanič, AV concert at Kino Šiška, photo by Maša Pirc, archive CONA Institute, November 2022
