Island Attunements

2022

Sound: Nuno da Luz
Animation: Sakke Soini / Veli Studio

“Each one of us is as old as the entire biological kingdom, and our bloodstreams are tributaries of the great sea of its total memory,” wrote J.G. Ballard. In a post-collapse society, could industrialized humans evolve along an alternative axis—connecting to internalized planetary memories?

Island Attunements takes up this proposal as a video and sound installation that takes viewers into a kaleidoscopic landscape connecting outer and inner worlds. The installation is part of a larger project that investigates six “attunements” — abilities to attune with life forces within the body, the environment, and ultimately across time. The installation combines video and procedural animation with a sonic landscape developed from field recordings—across a range of frequencies, above and below aquatic and terrestrial surfaces of São Miguel Island—conjuring a meditative experience.