Loading...Alba Vega Mulet - RE.FLEX.ION : ORCA, 7 min, Amsterdam, 2022
Re.flex.ion : Orca is an immersive sound experience that brings to human perception the acoustic reality of captivity for Orcas, in stark contrast with the rich sonic freedom of these species in the wild.
This project started in 2015 ignited by the out-roaring wish of using my knowledge on acoustics to help sonic creatures, being captured and held in captivity, to recover their freedom and end these barbaric practices.
We traveled to Andenes (Norway - 2017) and Salish Sea (WA & British Columbia - 2019) and fruitfully teamed up with Ocean Sounds and their wonderful team; who’s original field recordings can be heard in the composition.
The first materialisation of Re.flex.ion came with the investment of the team in a residency at the Spatial Sound institute in Budapest, using 4DSOUND technologies.
With limited resources, time, overcoming many challenges with the composition of the tank and pushing all possible boundaries (human-marine mammal acoustic perception adaptations), Re.flex.ion: Orca opened to the budapesti audience in February 2020.
This is a bespoke adapted binaural version of the journey (originally 25 min of full-body immersive sound experience).
With shortage of wild salmon (due to fish-farming contamination and damming of rivers) starving the orca population and oceans rapidly filling with noise & plastic pollution. Captivity shouldn't be the last sonic reality of these species, before their extinction.
CREDITS
Collaborators: Jordie Hoogervorst, Marina Mulet i Gayà, Robin Koek, Ruben Hoogervorst.
With recordings from: Ocean Sounds (Norway), Johnny Moses | Whis.stem.men.knee & Smithsonian Folkways.
Year: 2020 (bespoke binaural adaptation for Fragments of Sonic Extinction - 2022)
Alba Vega Mulet (b. in Gata de Gorgos, based in Amsterdam) is a telecommunications engineer with focus on acoustic design of spaces and audio-visual technology. Exploring acoustic spaces & realities, nature, constant change, disruptive waves and inter-cognitive behaviours is the journey I choose to express my truth, in freedom and with passion.
Part of the d/Deaf community; was deeply unsettling for me, understanding that something as precious as sound could be used to create these traumatic realities for magnificently sonic species.
Every iteration of Re.flex.ion brings back to me the urge of ending captivity. The longing of hearing those voices in freedom, endless; while we still have time.
The force of arts should never be overlooked when planning a better future.
