“Si los Oídos de Humboldt y Bonpland Hablaran”: A scientific and artistic research/creation project with the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia) and Banco Santander.
With this project we aim to revisit three different places in the eastern Colombian Andes formerly visited by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in the early 19th century. We want to characterize, recreate and compare in time those places based on their soundscapes.
The main objective is to approach in an trans-disciplinary way (art, science, engineering, environmental history) these landscapes from a perspective that could allow us to understand the changes occurred, as reflected in the sound spectrum. The proposed results are: a soundscape of each of the 3 locations in the present and in the past (6 spatialized audio tracks) in an audiovisual installation articulating the past and the present; a paper on an indexed journal about our experience of trans-disciplinary creation, recreation and research. The methods used are: the application of soundscape ecology tools, research in environmental history to contextualize the places, the use of 3D audio techniques and the presentation in the form of an artistic installation. The project began in January 2020.
To build this project from the beginning we worked together as an trans-disciplinary collective (arts, science, engineering). The members of Colectivo H&B20167 are :
- MSc. Camila Parra-Guevara – Colectivo Viaje Sonoro – Bogotá
- Dr. Sol Camacho-Schlenker – Colectivo Viaje Sonoro – Paris
- Prof. Dr. Yomayra Puentes-Rivera – Department of Visual Arts – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
- Prof. MFA. Luisa Roa – Department of Visual Arts – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
- Prof. Dr. Juan David Amaya-Espinel – Department of Ecology and Territory – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
- Prof. Dr. Pedro Vizcaya-Guarín – Department of Electronic Engineering – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
- M.Sc. Martín Bermúdez-Urdaneta – MBU – Instituto Distrital de Patrimonio Cultural (IDPC), city of Bogotá
This project has gone through a pandemic and undergone changes in its form, its dynamics and its temporality. And this year the results are finally coming !
- From April 12 to May 6 2022, we presented this project in the exhibition “Encuentros: Anhelos de Observación y Escucha” at the Art Gallery of the Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation (FUGA, Cra. 3 # 10 – 27, Room 2), Bogota.
- This exhibition was part of the “downtown tour” of ArtBo Fin de Semana (ArtBo Weekend) at the Bogota International Art Fair (ARTBO) from april 22 to april 24.
- From October 25 to 28 2022, we presented this project in the First Colombian Ecoacoustics and Bioacoustics Congress (Primer Congreso Colombiano de Bioacústica y Ecoacústica), in Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia.
- And from December 17 2022, the online version of the exhibition is freely accessible (in Spanish, English and French).
Colectivo Viaje Sonoro 