ever after, 2019

A site specific, online, interactive, sound archival installation, dimensions variable.

The view of Synoikismos, a refugee settlement in Chalandri’s since 1933, has gradually been re-shaped due to the rapid population growth that results in the intense urban development of the area. I researched and collected bird calls, chants and non-vocal bird sounds, based on the ideal bird living conditions in a wetland such as the creek at the height of the settlement, before being boxed under the ground. I invited the sound artist Sébastien Seixas to a conversation while setting up an interactive, online sound archival installation in relation to various historical and architectural elements of the neighborhood.

The bird sounds are triggered by the participants’ walking around specific locations using their mobile phones. The final sound compositions identified depend on the visitors’ movements around the neighborhood, yet every acoustic experience is personalized and unique. Other sounds are recognized in less-than-expected locations in order to trigger the viewers’ perceptions of sound, a procedure that concerns both artists.

Remembering Remembered, curated by Panajotis Daramaras and Lea Petrou. The exhibition is supported by the municipality of Chalandri, within the context of Rematia Festival. A specially designed catalogue designed by Lea Petrou and Stelios Chatzimanolis (SCS Knowhow), printed at G. Kostopoulos Printing, including maps, fotos, information on all artworks as well as texts by Dimitra Chatzisavva and Faye Tzanetoulakou were available for free.

This piece has no commercial use. Part of the research was realized under the guidance of the Hellenic Ornithological Society. All sounds are collected by www.xeno-canto.org, all rights belong to the website and the recordists mentioned in detailed following every bird’s scientific name. Many thanks to the Xeno-Canto team for implementing such an amazing online, bird-sound archive.

For an interactive listening please follow the steps to download ‘ever after’ at your mobile phone:
1. Use preferably wifi or mobile phone data to download the ECHOES application, following the link: https://echoes.xyz/collections/pw26KRab8j0KSUrX or the QR code.
2. Download the project EVER AFTER at your mobile phone.
3. Disconnect your mobile phone data or wifi, turn on the GPS, open the application and press start while visiting the neighborhood.
4. Use headphones or turn on your mobile phone’s volume and walk around, following the online map provided. You automatically listen to the activated sounds by walking through the different designed shapes on the map.

All documentation photos by Lea Petrou.