A Tale of Two Seeds: Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains

Digital Musics & Sound Art

Golden Nica

A Tale of Two Seeds: Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains is a sound installation that explores the expansion of the current technical agro-industrial colonization in Latin America. The work uses subterranean and surface recordings of the soil and recordings of electrical conductivity in the soy and amaranth plants to present a sonic testimony of the changing sounds of the Andean landscape after the arrival of GM monoculture soy expansion in the last decade. For some time now, soy monocultures have been threatened by the amaranth plant. (…)

The installation is complemented by two series, consistent of two video works. The first, On Vegetal Politics, explores food sovereignty, deforestation, and the preservation of biodiversity through the story of soy monoculture and its expansion in South American territories. (…) The second, Botánica Transgénica, is a web 3.0 and blockchain artwork that, through search algorithms and web scraping on the internet, aims to register as Colombian intellectual property the codes patented by foreign agro-industrial companies on our living organisms. (…)

Jury Statement

A Tale of Two Seeds, as well as the other two components of the installation, are the result of a sonic investigation of the problematic situation created by the accelerated expansion of soy

monoculture in South American territories. The transformation and loss of Latin American crop eco acoustic soundscapes is a living testimony to soil degradation and the destruction of all the relationships that make up terrestrial biotic ecosystems. (…) The work uses data capture technologies, recordings and sonification to make a sound case study of Colombian agricultural soils before, during, and after the advent of soybean expansion in the eastern plains region of the country as well as the incidence of amaranth crops in the current agricultural technology scene. (…) In this sonic interrogation, we will highlight amaranth’s role in the resistance to modern forms of colonialism most strongly represented by the genetic engineering of soy, the privatization of seeds, and the preservation of natural life and land sovereignty. This work reflects the social engagement and activism that many artists, particularly those in countries with prevalent economic and social disparities, employ (…).

Excerpt from the jury statement

A Tale of Two Seeds: Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains / Atractor + Semántica Productions (INT), Photo: Atractor + Semántica

A Tale of Two Seeds: Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains / Atractor + Semántica Productions (INT), Photo: Atractor + Semántica

A Tale of Two Seeds: Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains / Atractor + Semántica Productions (INT), Photo: Atractor + Semántica

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Credits

Atractor Estudio + Semantica Productions

Atractor Estudio:
General concept, original idea and research: Juan Cortés

Sound installation design, plastic and technical construction. Sound research and technical design. On vegetal politics and Botánica Transgénica: Visual and 3D design, parametric animation and growth algorithm: Juan José Lopez

Creative design for the installation, sound design conceptualization, sonification of data recordings, sound research, technical and creative design: Alejandro Villegas

Asset manager: Juan Quiñonez
General production: Ana Diaz

Semantica Productions:
Production, Research and Sound Recording: Camilla French and Jemma Foster