Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions

 

 

 

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ON AIR
ON AIR
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2014 - Present, Various locations.

Arachnids and Anthropos, an interspecies encounter mediated by the playful modality of sound. Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions allows for exploration of the sophisticated vibrational communication of arachnids, expanding communicative possibilities into the low-frequency spectrum and inspiring a more complex understanding of the more-than-human means of perceiving and existing.

Exploring the arachnid’s sophisticated mode of communication through vibrations, several instruments were developed to amplify the vibrations of spiders, rendering them audible to other species. These instruments, ranging from strings to percussion and Aeolic, were also incorporated by musicians into their live performances. The audio publishing project brings together jam sessions between arachnids and Anthropos performed live in various locations. Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions expands the possibility of communication into the low-frequency spectrum. Predicated on playfulness and creativity, this project instigates a more complex understanding of the animal world.

SPIDER JAM SESSION WITH SILVIA BOLOGNESI, MILAN (IT)

 

On the occasion of Tomás Saraceno’s the Weaving The Cosmos hosted by Bulgari at Ulrico Hoepli’s Planetarium during the 2019 Milan Design Week, music performer Silvia Bolognesi was invited to participate to a jam session with the spiders/webs. Silvia Bolognesi  is a double bass virtuoso and is considered as one of the most daring and interesting personalities of the Italian jazz scene. Her improvisation skills enter in dialogue with the spider/webs, transforming the installation into a collective musical instrument through which terrestrial and interplanetary tremors resound.

ARACHNID ORCHESTRA. JAM SESSION #2 WITH BANI HAYKAL, SINGAPORE CCA

 

As part of Tomás Saraceno’s Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions solo exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), NTU Singapore in 2015 curated by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu, Saraceno invited a number of musicians and performers to enter into an acoustic dialogue with spider/webs, mediated through the instruments of his Arachnid Orchestra. These encounters took the shape of three Jam Sessions. Jam Session #2: Variations on Hello was performed by musician Bani Haykal. Introduced by arachnologist Joseph K. H. Koh, Jam Session #1 incorporated a set of materials to transmit vibrations to the spiders, in an attempt to investigate whether specific frequencies and rhythmic patterns would trigger a response and produce a feedback mechanism between spiders and humans.

ARACHNID ORCHESTRA. JAM SESSION #3 WITH JOYCE BEETUAN KOH AND ETIENNE TURPIN, SINGAPORE CCA

 

As part of Tomás Saraceno’s Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions solo exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), NTU Singapore in 2015 curated by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu, Saraceno invited a number of musicians and performers to enter into an acoustic dialogue with spider/webs, mediated through the instruments of his Arachnid Orchestra. These encounters took the shape of three Jam Sessions. Jam Session #3: Away We Go was developed collaboratively by musician Joyce Betuan Koh and philosopher Etienne Turpin. 

COSMIC JIVE THE SPIDER SESSIONS, VILLA CROCE (IT)

The result of a long-term collaboration with biologists, musicians, architects and electronic engineers to study the sounds and vibrations produced by spiders in their web, Cosmic Jive The Spider Sessions was a solo exhibition by Tomás Saraceno in 2014 at Villa Croce, Italy. For this exhibition, Saraceo developed early prototypes of the spider web sonification devices: highly sensitive piezo microphones that could pick up the vibrations that Nephila keniensis and Cyrtophora citricola spiders send and receive through their webs.

SPIDER SALON, HAUS DER KULTUREN DER WELT, BERLIN

A Spider Salon with Tomás Saraceno and Molly Nesbit in an encounter with an Eratigena atrica (Tegenaria atrica) spider in a sonified web in an open carbon frame. This Spider Salon took place at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin in 2014, as part of the event, ‘’A Matter Theater’ (2014).

SPIDER SALON JAM SESSION WITH TOMOMI ADACHI

In September 2016, An early Spider Salon initiated in Tomás Saraceno’s Berlin studio, Berlin-based vocalist and composer Tomomi Adachi – renowned for his improvised music with voice, live electronics and self-made instruments – was invited to imagine an acoustic interspecies dialogue with a chorus of Cyrtophora citricola spiders, a Nephila senegalensis spider, and a percussive ensemble of Lycosidae spiders.

SPIDER SALON, STUDIO RECORDING WITH EVAN ZIPORYN

Head of Music and Theater Arts, inaugural Director of the Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST) and clarinettist/composer Evan Ziporyn visited Studio Tomás Saraceno in Rummelsburg, Berlin in September 2015, to speak about spiders, art and the musical possibilities that resonate in and between spiders, webs, silk and humans. During this visit, Ziporyn engaged in an interspecies jam session with a duet of vibrating Cyrtophora citricola spiders in their shared, complex three-dimensional tent web. This encounter is described in the book: Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions (2017)

ARACHNID ORCHESTRA. JAM SESSION #1 WITH BRIAN O’REILLY, SINGAPORE CCA

As part of Tomás Saraceno’s Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions solo exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), NTU Singapore in 2015 curated by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu, Saraceno invited a number of musicians and performers to enter into an acoustic dialogue with spider/webs, mediated through the instruments of his Arachnid Orchestra. These encounters took the shape of three Jam Sessions. Jam Session #1 was with Brian O’Reilly, performing with a number of instruments which offered different ways of interacting with the sounds generated by the spider.

COLLABORATORS

Cyrtophora citricola, Heteropoda davidbowie, Heteropoda venatoria, Lycosidae sundevall, Nephila inaurata, Nephila kenianensis, Nephila pilipes, Pholcus phalangioides, Steotoda nobilis, Bani Haykal, Joyce Beetuan Koh, Brian Massumi, Brian O’Reilly, David Rothenberg, Etienne Turpin and Evan Ziporyn.


 

 

 

Aria
Aria
·
ON AIR
ON AIR
·
ALBEDO
ALBEDO
·
...