Compass 2733° NW
2022 FarmStudio
Vysoká, Czech Republi
Metal(Milk Heater), JBL bluetooth speaker, Elektrouši
I picked up an old spiral object from the junkyard at Farmstudio, an art gallery in the Czech Republic close to the Germany boder. Something about it caught my curiosity. I started exploring it by touching its texture, making some noise from it, and eventually dancing a little with.
That night, the weather was calm and clear. I slept under the stars beside this old knowing. The next morning I woke up to find a deer quietly sniffing around us, staring at the object and me lying next to it.
Later, Pavel, the host of Farmstudio, told me that this object was designed to heat milk, and shared a regional tale of how this land has kept people here because of milk and honey. From that moment, I decided to build a research project inspired by these stories I had just woken into.
At that period of my nomadic life, I was searching for some kind of honest direction, not one shaped by rational thoughts or educated perspective planning, but one that could come from the body’s direct intuition. I began experimenting by taping a gyroscope sensor to my chest, recording my body's movement data and exploring how a sound system could respond to it.
I held stereo microphones that picked up signals from electromagnetic fields. Then I built a feedback system using four Bluetooth speakers, placed in the cardinal directions: north, east, south, and west These four speakers created a simple frame that humans have used for ages to navigate themself.
Then something interesting emerged. A relationship began to form between my body and the sonic feedback system. It started to act like a new compass, not one that points north, but exist within in/out of my understanding.
It was not choreography. It felt more like being moved by a quiet current beneath the surface.
I found new ways of questioning through the process of echo and reflection.
East: What are we actually listening to?
South: Why do we follow?
West: Where do invisible signals coexist within us?
North: And why do we stop again?
