Desire to Impress

START POINT Piața Revoluției from a family of trees north of Monumentul lui Iuliu Maniu. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZTCbezbhRgNEsVQEA

DURATION Approximate duration is between 50 and 60 minutes.

You will walk through 12 distinct scenes, the path will be your stage and the cityscape your set design. Depending on the slowness of your walking, you might hear some of the scenes more than once. Feel free to explore at your own pace. Walking out of the sound zones will temporarily pause the sound. If that happens, simply restart the play button.

HOW TO USE Connect your phone to wireless* headphones and start streaming the walk. Follow the instructions that will guide you from Piața Revoluției to Cişmigiu Park. Try not to lock and unlock your phone while using the soundwalk, as this could temporarily turn off the sound. If the sound turns off, simply press the play button and continue your walk.

DESCRIPTION Blackbirds navigate space multidirectionally, while human movement through urban environments is mostly flat or, at best, perpendicular. The structure supporting the audiovisual installation is a network of rods, echoing the architecture of a tree canopy. Ten speakers are arranged to correspond to the birds’ three-dimensional dwellings. The blackbird population in Cișmigiu is dense, so it is not unusual to hear several individuals calling from the same canopy, though they often chase one another away. The composition engages with notions of chronoreality and frequency sensitivity. Scientists measure temporal resolution through vision. The critical flicker frequency marks the point at which the eye can no longer distinguish separate flashes of light, instead perceiving a steady beam. For humans, this threshold is around 60 frames per second. For birds, it is higher, between 100 and 145 frames per second.. This means that time runs more slowly for them than for us, shaping a distinct chronoreality, which is reflected in the slowdown of audio recordings. Just as temporal resolution defines experience, so does the range of visible wavelengths. Humans perceive light across three colour channels, between infrared and ultraviolet. Blackbirds, however, have four colour channels and a broader spectral sensitivity. They are thought to detect electromagnetic wavelengths from roughly 400 to 700 nm (429–750 THz), giving them access to colours invisible to us. Their perception of light radiation is therefore fundamentally different. We can only approximate what such a view might look like. The videos of movement between trees attempt one such translation. For humans, a female blackbird appears a muted brown, and a male uniformly black. Yet to themselves, their plumage may be vibrant, perhaps as striking as a parrot is to us. More: https://beepblip.org/desire-to-impress/

CREDITS Artist: Ida Hiršenfelder Scientists: Andreea Ciobotă and Mihaela Ciobotă (Institutul de Biologie Bucuresti – Academia Romana) Production: Marginal (Otherwise Residency) Curator: Andrei Tudos Co-production: Institutul de Biologie Bucuresti – Academia Romana Adviser: Marian Zamfirescu (National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest) Support: Administrația Fondului Cultural Național (Bucharest, RO) & ŠŠŠŠŠŠ | Institute for Spatial Music (Ljubljana, SI), Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB

A field recording diary is indefinitely accessible on https://aporee.org/maps/work/projects.php?project=blackbirds-bucharest.

*Wired headphones may disrupt the stream.