Shomit Barua, Synthesis Center @Arizona State University
virPrague 20: Climate Change, Anthropocene, Geosciences
A multi-narrative, non-linear sound installation: 30 miniature guitar amps on tripods are placed in thematic clusters around the periphery of a space, in niches, corners, and the ends of hallways. They are unobtrusive, registering more as a layer of whispers, and they form a sonic tapestry that serves as an oral history of the future. The voices in each cluster are digital artifact, first-person monologues from specific points in the 100 years leading up to a speculative future of Prague 2121; as the monologues play in a continuous, asynchronous loops, different perspectives of the events are emphasized. The audience becomes both passive and active participants; passive as they listen to the monologues, and active as their own attention and movement curates their experience.