map Moscow

Soundwalk on my Moscow site

I titled my soundwalk [e]turnal kolomna. Kolomna is one of the most poetically and visually charged cultural areas in Saint Petersburg, a place where you can take an eternal number of turns in space in time and where the memory of poets and poetry becomes enmeshed in the stories of random encounters with the locals. In order to construct my multi-dimensional journey, I aligned my transitions along a temporally compulsive line, i.e. matutinal walk – diurnal walk – crepuscular walk – vespertine walk – nocturnal walk. However, the unpredicted surrealism of the real walk turned a strictly aligned tour into a pure peripatetic itinerary in the spirit of In the Labyrinth by Alain Robbe-Grillet. In so doing, I subvert the phallogocentric idea of a rigid trajectory from A to B and offer a rhizomatic labyrinth organized temporally rather than spatially. I visited Kolomna twice: deep after midnight and in daily light. The result here is my personal superimposed memory(ies). In order to construct my multi-dimensional journey, I aligned my transitions along a temporally compulsive line, i.e. matutinal walk - diurnal walk - crepuscular walk - vespertine walk - nocturnal walk. In order to enhance the surrealism and momentariness of experienced walk through Kolomna, I have chosen a still from Last Year at Marienbad, a 1961 French film directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet. You can see the visualized sonic accompaniment for my walk here (via pop-up maps in Maps Maker Pro) or through finding [e]turnal kolomna in ECHOES.XYZ

In different epochs and centuries there were many famous persons who lived in Saint-Petersburg. It is difficult to walk in the city historical area and not to notice the plenty of memorial plate on the walls. These marble and granite signs are silent presence of the history. Walking through Kolomna district we see physical evidences of someone’s past, but usually it risks remaining unnoticed. Stones can’t speak. They disappear in the urban landscape. The great diversity of lives behind them merges to the monotony multitude. Personal histories of people, who once lived here reduced to ultra shot immortalized stone curriculum vitae. Sometimes such a plate is an only evidence of one’s life within the city memory. Half of our sound-point dedicated to not so much popular persons who were involved in the cultural and academic life. Each person, whose life we caught in the sound, had a dominated sound in his/her life. This sound could be connected with his activity, life choice, fate and destiny. We highlight people of different historical period and different activity. Their diverse destinies are as different as sounds which surrounded them – from the silence of the concentrated work and peaceful routine to rolling clatter and astonishment. These sounds could possibly describe their lives. For this sound-walk we apply our modern representation and understanding of events of the past to the committed facts and connect it with the present moment. We are hearing the history and mind the present time. Using the sound we lay the path from one human destiny to the other. The trajectory of the walk was curved point to point, where the points are a scoring place of memory. The past reborn, it blends in one sound with the present. Each sound-point is not only the space of memory which was attempted to activate, but also the present moment. The great history is inevitably distorting because we have made the choice how to «dub» the past from the perspective of the modern human. Wandersmänner – the flaneurs or rushing people with their own glimpses are not able fully comprehend the past. For us the history of a person from those days is done, it is something that exist post factume. We also should bear in mind that this history is full of additions and sequels, which continue the life after the life. The project supplies the past with contemporary associations which aimed to cause emotional response. This sound-path reveals the layers of the history and piles of the historical layers. It reminds about the existence of millions of forever silent destinies (and millions accompanying sounds), memory of which does not imprinted at all.

The idea of sound walk deals with the idea of symbolic system which ought to represent or not to represent the essence of the place. Sound becomes a basic unit of this symbolic system which is less material and sometimes less recognizable than architecture or inform desks near the building. The problem of symbolic system consists in the process of reading off the meaning of the signs. Listeners need to be inside cultural context to get the symbol meaning to recognize the sign. Those sounds which are downloaded and available into the echoes application represent subjective interpretation of places’ signifiers. Sound as basic symbolic unit has been chosen according to the idea of acoustemology and soundscape. This walk is an invitation for participants to do their own research on the question if proper places have proper sounding. It is offered five different points every of which has a typical function. The function is not obvious for observers if they are not involved into the process, and from this point it is ephemeral. There will be five points which hold their own symbolic system. Does this system really work is the question for which everyone is invited to find the answer.

The walk was in particular inspired by the work of Raley “On Locative Narratives” and Foursquare’s statistics. The focal point is to concentrate on reactivation of the mechanisms of listening in relation to the specific time and space. As Raley argues, such projects attempt to represent “spatial events” – e.g. events that are attributed with “duration, intensity, volatility, and location”. In my walk, I connected famous touristic spots and unknown local stories put into them among with the “secret” locations, unmemorable on the first glance, whose perception is being the result of the striking architecture of Saint Petersburg’s central area. With the focus on Kolomna district – one of the oldest parts of our city, I traced the top 250 check-ins of St. Petersburg, the majority of which belonged to the shopping malls, airport, touristic cafes and top universities – and only 2 of 250 (Mariinsky theatre and Saint Isaac’s Cathedral – 132nd and 72nd places respectively) were tagged in Kolomna, situated a little bit aside from Nevsky prospect. As we can observe, Foursquare’s statistics mimics a values of capitalistic society and its crave to correspond so-called “high standards”, characterized by expensive popularity, fashion trends and general acknowledgement. As a result, we have everyone’s desire to be a part of this cultural fashion trough check-in “membership”, and no one’s – to create a unique experience through critical rethinking. The aim of this walk is give a chance to explore a historical centre form a different perspective, as lived and social environment, in opposition to the commercialized usage of the geo-tag possibilities, with an intention to create resistance to those forms, to destabilize existing ideological, cultural and political framing. Thus sonic silence presented in two personal narratives, briefly described in spots’ description hopes to be an impetus not to have just a formal experience of presence, but to act as a writer of one’s own cartography. Bon voyage!

An AI tour guide, a misdelivered memory, and a glitch in your sense of self. Who’s watching whom?

​​У серпні 2023 року ми зустрілися з командою заміського комплексу “Уліс” та почали думати, що можна розповісти цікавого по дорозі у цьому напрямку. Через місяць досліджень історії та культури регіону, експедицій та запису розповідей місцевих жителів, ми знайшли відповідь Ви прямуватимете на північ, у регіон Київського Полісся. Край лісів, піску, боліт та малолюдних просторів, які дозволяють поєднатися з природою на якісно іншому рівні. Перевести подих, відновити душевний спокій Неочікувано, але майже у кожному селі ми зустрічали когось пов’язаного з кінематографом та мистецтвом. Тому ви почуєте про місцевих режисерів, акторів та дізнаєтесь, що пов’язує премію Оскар та місто Димер. Через це ми запросили озвучити цю подорож режисера стрічки “Памфір” та етнографа-дослідника за духом, Дмитра Сухолиткого-Собчука Цікаво, чи прокинеться і у вас потяг до зйомок кіно, фотографії або малювання під час або після цієї подорожі? Крім природної краси, тут особлива культура та багата історія. Край древлян та містичних вірувань. Тут у людей особлива любов і пристрасть до збирання грибів. Обов’язково поспілкуйтесь з місцевими та спробуйте зробити власне етнографічне дослідження. Полісся може вас здивувати. Як воно здивувало нас ВАЖЛИВО! Завантажте тур наперед (стрілочка вниз у синій рамці під назвою туру) у якості PREMIUM і налаштуйтесь на спокійний перегляд цього аудіо-фільму за вікном Не забудьте також ввімкнути режим "не турбувати" та вимкнути голосові підказки навігатора Розповіді почнуться на Оболоні. Оберіть маршрут понад Дніпром: через Нові Петрівці, Лютіж, Димер (для навігації в Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dxYBmaBjAsSWPitQ6) Будьте обережними за кермом і їдьте повільніше, ніж зазвичай - розповіді забирають частину вашої уваги Аудіо подорож створено в листопаді 2023 року. До процесу виробництва долучилося більше 40 людей різних талантів та вподобань. Всього за годину аудіо експедиції ви теж станете експертами по Поліссю :) Більше про проект: https://www.instagram.com/roaddream.guide/ Підтримати створення нових маршрутів: https://send.monobank.ua/jar/57maMPhfDr Тур створено за підтримки Уліс: ulis.ua