A Prelude on Two Rhythmic Studies: Natural and Unnatural Sounds. 

An olfactory acoustic composition for Bi_AM – the International Art Biennial of Antioquia and Medellín, Colombia

The composition is based on the tension between natural and unnatural cultivation, and specifically the relationship between humans and insects. About 80% of the living species on our planet are insects, and biologists such as Edward O. Wilson argue that without them our planet will cease to function—but we are eliminating them at an exponential rate, without even identifying them. This tension in our co-existence is particularly evident in agriculture. On the one hand insects are beneficial; they pollinate the crops we depend on. On the other hand, they are a pest and we go to great lengths to exterminate them. 

In the case of Nicotiana tabacum, cultivated tobacco, insects in the form of moths pollinate the crop, attracted by its night-scented flowers. The moths are beneficial, and the plants recognise this by releasing benzyl acetone at night—but their caterpillars are destructive. Nature can cope with this tension: the plants recognise the metamorphic stages, and once the eggs are laid and the caterpillars are posing danger they naturally delay their flower opening time to reject the moths and attract hummingbirds as pollinators instead. But monocultures do not operate with these natural rhythms. Instead, we use the blunt instrument of pesticides and bring silence to the fields.

How can we find a way to draw a more delicate line that respects and values our mutual dependency and restores a more natural rhythm?

Maciá’s library of insect sounds and breaking glass form the acoustic composition—a dialogue between the two natural and one unnatural rhythms in 16 channels (8 / 8)—while an olfactory composition based on the molecules of Nicotiana tabacum creates a space of immersion. The speakers (on stands) are arranged widely spaced in a corridor, eight on each side, with a large circular wooden platform with the smell systems underneath in the centre. The audience walk through the corridor, on either side of the speakers, and pause in the centre to sit or lie down—and reflect.