"At the Big Bang everything was infinity close ... then the universe expanded and now [even though] some particles are at vast distance to each other ... they are still connected through quantum entanglement, because they originated from the same point." = Rok Hribar, Jožef Stefan Institute (Ljubljana)

From the sounds of the arctic circle to the desert and many other acoustic ecologies found between these points, with this new work sound art Colin Black explores a type of sonic trigonometry that challenges our concepts relating to the angles, distances and connectedness. The aim is to create a new geospatial perspective that investigates a re-contextualisation of place and places as not being fixed but rather in constant flux within themselves and with each other that regularly needs to be retriangulated. Moreover, a superimposition of sometimes seemingly contradictory spaces at various times collide to offer the listener affordances for self-reflection and re-evaluation concerning how we map space and environments, how we see (or hear) ourselves situated within sonic terrains, how memory abstracts the mapping of place and through this artistic process of sonic trigonometry how we can make connections between these acoustic points of reference. In effect the acoustic ecologies can be heard as becoming scalable as the sonic weighting and horizons of the soundscapes evolve throughout the work.

The goal of this type of sonic trigonometry is to transmute the notion of the insulated local ecology, so as to reanalyse and reconceptualise the local as a dynamic integral element that is intimately and ultimately connected to other global environments. This sonic trigonometry is also combined with deft musical compositions and other sound effects that subtly and gradually throughout the work reveals human activity encroaching these spaces. This treatment and collision of sound elements aims to brings focus to and amplifies the Anthropocene framed from within the changing perspectives of the various acoustic ecologies. As the work progresses through its various processes and computations, the anthrophonic (human made sound) elements add another layer of potential sonic trigonometry overlaid onto the site and across the multiple sites that asks the listener to calculate the proximities and potential impacts of human activity on our interconnected delicate and dynamic global acoustic ecology.

Further, through this sonic trigonometry process, expanded notion of the local and by logical consequence, the listener is also subtly asked to ponder the wider question related to connectedness … if quantum entanglement is correct then in fact every point of the universe effects every other point in the universe and everything exists in a dynamic matrix that was once emerged from a single point (or singularity). A lyrical motif is heard throughout the work that echoes this proposition, “how far, how distant, how close?”.

Through this re-contextualisation of place, this work also aims to poignantly reveal to the listeners that our ecologies are not as stable, as once thought, as they morph, are displaced, so as to point to the fact that many are now approaching their potential breaking points. Moreover, through this artist process of sonic trigonometry the audience is also encouraged to triangulate global sustainability and our collective survival on planet Earth.