“They say that if you listen deep enough, against the noise of the bucket-wheel you will hear a lament from underneath the rubbles. They say that this lament can heal.”
Behind the friendly graphic interface on our computer lies no heaven but a world of cobalt and gold: The underworld of deep mining. There, there is no longer the old separation between the mortal and the divine, but between the presumed immateriality of the digital and the matter-heavy extractivism of the global tech industry.
The 21st century civilization’s technological dependency on natural resources leaves a trail of socio ecological devastation that is systematically rendered invisible by a global system of bureaucracy and corruption.
While human, vegetable, animal, mineral, liquid and data bodies are being processed, sluiced, dried out, classified, extracted, and commodified, information is supposed to grow out of thin air. But technology is not in the sky. The “cloud” is under our skin.
“Egolith Xenolith” is a rite of speculative animism, where a techthonic invocation to the minerals and metals that constitute the building blocks of our electronic devices is performed, in an attempt to decode their angelic chant.
We hope that through the amplification of their more-than-human voices their language will be revealed, their stories will be heard and retold, their messages will be received and propagated. If the experiment is successful, the communication between diverse spectres of perception and species of intelligence will be restored and collective action will be taken so that earthly coexistence becomes once again possible.
CREDITS:
Concept, Artistic Research, Sound Design: Daphne Xanthopoulou (GR)
Visual Narration: Diana Bohutska (UA, PL)
Programming: Błażej Kotowski (PL)
Sculptures: Sheida Ramhormozihosseinizadeh (IR)
AFFILIATIONS:
Produced under the guidance of Manuela Naveau during the course:
Critical Data II – Interface Cultures MA, Kunstuniversität Linz, 2022
Daphne Xanthopoulou (she, them) is a new media artist, composer and musician of Anatolian Greek descent, currently studying at the Interface Cultures MA, in Linz, Austria.
Through collaborative practices formulated through performance, podcast, and installation, she uses the medium of sound and speculative fiction to amplify the encounters between human and non-human voices, and examine new economies of collective composition, environmental listening, and communal healing.
