VISEU RURAL 2.0 // SONIC EXPLORATIONS OF A RURAL ARCHIVE
Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art International Competition

This international competition invited electroacoustic musicians/composers and sound artists from around the world to produce sound works based on the Viseu Rural 2.0 archive, one that is being collected and archived by Binaural/Nodar with recordings of rural contexts from the Municipality of Viseu (Viseu Dão Lafões, Portugal), thus creating a sense of exploration and diffusion way beyond the borders of the specific location of the recordings.

Artists from around the world freely selected sound files from the archive in order to create sound works inspired by the rural context of Viseu, which were be submitted until September 30th, 2016 and were later evaluated by the selection panel, composed by the board of directors of Binaural/Nodar and associated experts.

From over 100 received works, the panel officially selected 39 sound pieces, the ones presented in this publication that were all considered as having high artistic quality.

The following were the awarded prizes:

1st Prize: Jeff Morris (Sobre a Electrodinâmica dos Corpos de Trabalho)
2nd Prize: Helene Hedsund	(Pastoral)
3rd Prize: Nikos Stavropoulos (Portrait V)
		
Jury Awards:

Boštjan Perovšek (Rails Past the Birds)
Diego Behncke ([-inf] -90.30900 -90.30900 [-inf] -80.76657 -84.28840)
Elsa Justel (Estampes de Viseu)
Fabián Avila Elizalde (Quebranto)
Jonathan Higgins	(Disinter)
Luigi Morleo (On Western Terror)
NUM (I Am Walking In The Woods Of Magic)
		
Honorable Mentions:

Adam Hulbert (Studies in Xbduction)
Bella (Ementa das Almas)
Deovides A. Reyes III (Superposition Phenomenon)
Fabrizio Gaggini (A Night on the Train)
John Tenney	(Over Viseu)
Massimo Avantaggiato	(Azul)
Sturqen	(Fabricação)
Moody Alien	(A Day in the Fields)
Vedran Mehinovic	(Dimensions in Viseu)
Virgílio Oliviera (Terra e Fé)

Viseu Rural 2.0: Sonic Explorations of a Rural Archive

S3 salina del faro di punta Lingua o stagno costiero delle majare
Deambulazione metrica e sconfinamento (con Matteo e Letizia )



Calpestare e sviscerare i confini per abitare la soglia, considerare la marginalità come luogo radicale di possibilità, come spazio di resistenza.
Sconfinare, e considerare sconfinamenti post-organici e la disfatta dei generi.
Tramite visioni trasversali e generose ripensare l’idea di cartografia, e riscoprirla incarnata nei corpi e negli affetti.

Ripensando il manifesto di libertà delle majare eoliane, attaverso processi di diffusione e socializzazione, frequentare il territorio incerto che attraversiamo quando ci spostiamo un luogo ad un altro, e considerarlo come punto di partenza per decostruire una realtà radicale e univoca, e aprirsi ad una soggettività fluida, pluristratificata in divenire, dove divenire significa apertura, potere trasformativo delle minoranze. l

Scegliere questo luogo per attivare riti come microilluminazioni, pratiche urticanti e sabotaggi elettronici, fare esperimenti di richiamo, costruire un’ intimità con le cose più piccole per reincantarsi, reincantare il mondo, e imparare a stare in sequenze sospese

S3 salina del faro di punta Lingua

RADIOBALLO una radio a caballo, es un proyecto financiado por el Fondo Regional para la Cultura del MEC, en la categoría Memoria y Tradiciones.
En la primera temporada, grabamos con niños, jóvenes y adultos de Curtina, Los Cuadrado y Sauce de Batoví, Tacuarembó (Uruguay).

Ficha técnica

Autoría: Ana Cecilia Rodríguez: dirección, producción, grabaciones de campo, edición /  Robert Da Silva: producción, grabaciones de campo, contenidos culturales.

Equipo: Asociación Cultural Binaural Nodar (Portugal), Luis Costa y Liliana Silva: diseño de identidad visual, colaboración creativa visual y sonora. Virginia Silva: Contadora Pública.

Colaboraciones: Logística, René da Silva (Capilla Santa María, Sauce de Batoví), Marcelo Estigliano y Marita Torres (Centro Juvenil Nosotros Sí Podemos, Curtina). Difusión: Franco Falistoco/ El Ruido es el Mensaje. Apoyo técnico: Franco Falistoco, Diego Strasser, Cecilia Panizza

programa 1

programa 2

programa 3

Episode nr. 19 - Between Bridges... voices stir time travelled.
By Maile Colbert

We are pleased to present the last episode of a series of the Binaural Radio Rural podcast, entitled “Between Bridges” and created by Maile Colbert. The source archives used in this series belong to Binaural Nodar Digital Archive and explore Voice, and its relationship to Place. How do our places shape voices, both human and non-human, song and soundscape.

This episode works with polyphonic songs from the Binaural Nodar Digital Archive, as well as the soundtrack from Maile Colbert’s film created at the Binaural Nodar artist residency in November 2007, during her first trip to Portugal.

On the creative process she says: “Using processes that bend, twist, rupture, and shape time and sound. The work revisited through the archive, Over the Eyes, is from my first trip to Portugal, and my first artist residency at Binaural Nodar, an experience that changed my life in multiple ways. I accessed and explored, considering memory and sound, along with the other voices from the archive. The personal archives, the archives of others, woven together, crochet of voices, memories, and time. The many temporalities of voices in archives. In the composition, they move in and out of phase, traces linger, call, die off, return in an unexpected place. Old song recorded on new material, sounding their times. Voices recorded with older technologies, sounding their times. A climatic mix decided by the machine, from what it learned of my memories.” 

Maile Colbert is an intermedia artist, researcher, and educator with a focus on time-based media. She is a PhD Research Fellow in Artistic Studies with a concentration on Sound Studies, cinematic sound design, and its relationship with soundscape ecology at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a visiting lecturer at the Universidade da Maia, Porto. Her current practice and research project is titled, Wayback Sound Machine: Sound through time, space, and place, and asks what we might gather from sounding the past. She is a collaborator with the art organization Binaural Nodar, a member of CineLab, research lab for cinema and philosophy and is an editor and author at Sonic Field. She has exhibited, screened, and performed globally.

Binaural Radio Rural #19 - Between bridges... voices stir time travelled

https://vertical-music.bandcamp.com/album/radura

Sonic research in two residual places linking poetry, soundscape and architecture. ‘Femminile Plurale’ takes us through a former greenhouse, an irrigation tank and a bunker in Liguria. ‘RADURA’ rewrites the space of an urban clearing in Berlin through a participative performance. 

Vittoria Assembri is an architectural and sound researcher. Her practice explores the territories considered marginal, from an architectural and sound point of view. She focuses her research on the regeneration of urban spaces as the recovery of building heritage that pursues sustainable sociability and social diversity. She deepens on the notion of Third Landscape, as an oblique and unconventional condition, of abandoned spaces invested by spontaneous forms of other species. 
www.vittoriaassembri.com 

Gaia Ginevra Giorgi is a poet, sound artist, performer and researcher. She published “Manovre segrete” (Interno Poesia, 2017) and “L’animale nella fossa” (Miraggi Edizioni, 2021). Her research is oriented towards the generative possibilities of intercode poetry: she experiments with vocal soundscapes, and studies the relationships between text, voice, new electronic devices and architectural space, creating site-specific projects. 
www.instagram.com/gaiaginevragiorgi/ 

They are co-curators of 'Walk So Silently That the Bottoms of Your Feet Become Ears' (on Fango Radio), a collection of sound materials by artists who work with a site-specific approach. Archives of sound landscapes reflect on the theme of liminal enviroment, of waste, of residue: field recordings, interviews, vocal soundscapes, poems, sound installations, then in close relationship with the architectural space and its crossings (human and non-human). 
www.fangoradio.com/shows/158

Vittoria Assembri & Gaia Ginevra Giorgi: RADURA (Excerpt)

Episódio nº 20 - Portugueses no Uruguai: A vida antes da grande viagem
Por Ana Rodríguez e Luís Costa

Iniciamos uma nova série do podcast Binaural Rádio Rural, intitulada "Portugueses no Uruguai", composta por três episódios criados a partir de uma série de entrevistas realizadas pela antropóloga Ana Rodríguez no ano de 2022 com portugueses e descendentes de portugueses que vivem ou viveram em áreas urbanas e rurais do Departamento de Montevidéu, no Uruguai.

Esta série de três episódios é produzida pela Binaural Nodar, tendo contado com o apoio do Mapa Sonoro de Uruguay e com a estreita colaboração da Casa de Portugal em Montevidéu na mediação com a comunidade portuguesa e na divulgação dos resultados do projeto.

Este episódio é construído na forma de um fluxo contínuo de relatos sobre lugares e sobre a vida antes da emigração para o Uruguai, entrecruzados com paisagens sonoras e cantares evocativos desses ambientes, registos que fazem parte do Arquivo Digital Binaural Nodar. Foram as seguintes as pessoas entrevistadas, pela ordem em que aparecem no episódio:

José Mateus Pinho (nascido em 1930), Lucilia Moura (nascida em 1933), António Pires (nascido em 1936), Domingos da Silva Cabeleira (nascido em 1950), Maria Concepción Ferreira Díaz (nascida em 1947) e Arminda dos Santos Leite (nascida em 1937). 

Este episódio é dedicado à memória de Maria Concepción Ferreira Dias e Arminda dos Santos Leite, as quais, infelizmente, faleceram pouco depois da entrevista.

Registos adicionais utilizados:

NODAR.00823 - Segada e Malhada do Centeio (Relva, Castro Daire)
NODAR.00880 – Grupo de Cantares de Carvalhal de Vermilhas – As três Marias (Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Vouzela)
NODAR.00523 - Paisagem sonora de ovelhas a pastar (Pousa Maria, Viseu)
NODAR.00603 – Maçar, tascar e sedar o linho (Várzea de Calde, Viseu)
NODAR.01024 – O Moinho comunitário de Alva (Alva, Castro Daire)
Gravação de Pato Pintos à guitarra efetuada por Nilda Amaral para a peça sonora "Aros y rayuelas en Pieda Sola" de Luís Costa.

Binaural Radio Rural #20 - Portugueses no Uruguai: A vida antes da grande viagem

Binaural Radio Rural
Um podcast dedicado a lugares, memórias, sons e arquivos
Episódio nº 23: As gravações não têm culpa: A velha caverna

O podcast Binaural Radio Rural comissionou uma série de três episódios à antropóloga e artista sonora uruguaia Ana Rodríguez, sugerindo um repto simples: o de usar gravações sonoras de arquivo, especialmente aquelas que nunca foram incluídas anteriormente em processos de criação e de devolução. Esta série de episódios intitulada “As gravações não têm culpa” é, pois, uma tentativa de fazer justiça através da criação com gravações de campo realizadas em Portugal, Uruguai e País Basco, as quais ficaram inéditas por problemas de comunicação, de mal-entendidos ou de falta de tempo, espaço ou escuta. Cada capítulo desta série revive esses registos que mereciam não ficar esquecidos, os quais foram carinhosamente embrulhados entre gravações de arquivo, processos de introspecção e narrativas sonoras.

No primeiro episódio da série “As gravações não têm culpa”, um ser, recolhido no aconchego do seu lar, contacta com um vapor de memória extratemporal, revisitando alguns marcos da experiência humana, situando-a e extraindo-a de alguns contextos em que se entrelaçou com outras linhas da vida.

Neste episódio, a história é contada com a ajuda de gravações de campo realizadas por Ana Rodríguez no Uruguai (Movimento de gado em Laureles, Cavas rochosas nas montanhas do Valle Edén, Tacuarembó; em Portugal (Milheirada em Covas do Monte, 2013; Batida do coração em Várzea de Calde, 2022; Coruja em Gafanhão, 2020) e em Espanha (Exercícios para osteoartrose de um antigo pastor do Vale de Carranza, Bizkaia, 2012). Incluem-se também alguns registos do Arquivo Digital Binaural Nodar gravados em Figueiró dos Vinhos, Gavião, Boa Aldeia, Carvalhal de Vermilhas, e Várzea de São Pedro do Sul.

Binaural Radio Rural #23 - As gravações não têm culpa: A velha caverna

Foggy snow-capped mountain peaks and thick dark green hills call me out to explore over and over. My forgotten sanctums, the vast lands which slowly crawls out of interwound voices inside me, gaze at my eyes. 
They dissolve me in , furtively and light. Everything has stopped here.

"I Am Walking In The Woods Of Magic" is an electroacoustic piece created by NUM. This piece is a combination of field recording ( downloaded from ViseuRural website ), electronics , vocals , flute and local rural cries. 
Every sonic material was processed by NUM in order to create a rural and also mysterious atmosphere to awaken the passion of return to the nature for spiritual restoration. 

Composed by : Milad Bagheri , Maryam Sirvan
Flute and vocals : Maryam Sirvan
Audio engineer : Milad Bagheri

Biography:
NUM is an Iranian electronic duo formed by Milad Bagheri and Maryam Rezazadeh ( aka Maryam Sirvan) in 2010, based in Rasht in northern Iran where the Alborz Mountains meet the Caspian sea.  The concentration of NUM is on experimental electroacoustic music where they can create unique atmospheres by combining natural sonic materials with electronic sounds .

Milad Bagheri (Composer , Electronic instruments , Audio Engineer)
Maryam Sirvan (Composer, Vocals, Flute)

NUM: I Am Walking In The Woods Of Magic

How can I approach recordings of a place that is foreign, outsider, alien to me? Recordings that are so rooted in their sense of place, as in this case with Viseu, have, in my opinion, two ways of manifesting: they act as a definitive index of their own mechanism in articulating space and time in a fixed, linear temporality; but they also represent a ground in which they no longer exist: that is, a technical nature that can relate to a non-landscape, a landscape beyond itself, existing between a multiplicity of places. So, to approach these recordings I had to come up with a way to make them mine, but also to consider them as independent multiplicities that act as technical objects, no longer participating in a geographical sense.
With this in mind, I re-recorded the rural sounds of Viseu, playing through the speakers in my house. I moved the speakers throughout my house, placing different microphones in different places, and using various techniques for re- recording the sounds coming out of my speakers, evoking rural Viseu. Through this methodology, I can play with the acoustics of my own sense of place, interlacing with the geographic mechanics of the recorded topographies.

The chants, rivers, voices and abandoned buildings transform first through translating them technically, and then approaching the composition structure through analyzing narratives in the same recordings. I came up with a way to intertwine the mangling of sounds and spaces in time through the idea of "narrative interferences" and rhizome (Deleuze); this way, I can think about presenting, in one way, a possible outcome for representing Viseu in my own, quotidian approach.

Biography:
Diego Behncke (b. 1992, Santiago), is a composer and artist working in the field of media arts, installation, and electroacoustic composition. His work is aimed at approaching research about geography, technical objects, and organized representations of data appropriation through algorithms that relate to real and virtual spaces.

Studied Musical Composition in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2011- 2015) under Cristián Morales-Ossio, and Aesthetics in the same university (2015-2016), doing techno-aesthetics studies and film theory.

Since 2012 he is part of the multidisciplinary art collective Taller Ciclo, doing live performances in Santiago, Chile, in Teatro Oriente (2015) and Sala Isidora Zegers (2015), and also La Serena in festival MUSICAHORA (2014).
In july 2016 his debut full-lenght album "2082z 1952z 1948z" was released by Speculations Editions.

Diego Behncke: [ - Inf] -90.30900 -90.30900 [ - Inf] -80.76657 -84.28840

The composing procedure is based on the selection of sounds available from the recording titled “The Old Station – Paisagem audiovisual de antiga Estação Ferroviária de Bodiosa – 40.717147, -7.988202. , 13’13’'. The latter underwent sonic analysis to eliminate constant sonic background noise, using the basic principles of writing libretti. The birdsong and warble of the stream was freed from noise; it was limited to ten minutes and simultaneously defined as the base layer of sound. Further sonic layering of the recording involved cutting frequency fields of various lengths from the original recording and placing them in their original positions on the timeline of the initial recording. Concurrently, the cut-out clips became sound samples to be treated electro-acoustically in select locations within the frame of the ten-minute composition. Narration of the text during the electro-acoustic treatment was part of the creative process. Its non-documentation – the lack of recording of the narration was an essential part of the execution as it left behind nothing but the subconscious influence it had on the execution of the electro-acoustic treatment. It was also possible to replace the narration of the text with internalized repetition of the text in thought.
 
Execution on the recording (September 2016):
Boštjan Perovšek, live electronics, computer, mixing and production of the entire recording.

Biography:
Bostjan Perovsek (Ljubljana, 1956) is musician, composer and soundscape artist, composes experimental, electro acoustic music. He specialises in creating bio-acoustic music based on the sounds of animals, especially insects. He plays on his own or with the band SAETA, which performs experimental music. He also creates music for film, theatre, performances and multimedia installations, as well as soundscapes for museums and galleries. He works also as sound engineer for film and video. He has published a number of CD’s, some as a solo artist, some with the band SAETA. His first vinyl LP entitled „Bio, Industrial Acoustica (green)“ reveals compositions from his bio-acoustics and urban noise opus.
One of the most important parts of his work is how to connect art and science. One of the result of such work was his composition put in the selection of the 10 compositions from Europe and United States, proposed by the Association of the European Radio Stations (EBU) for the period 1995-96, and performed within the programme “Radio Ars Acustica”. His attention is also put in the field of “experiment for events”. That is why he works also in the field of entertainment as sound designer like soundscapes for casino, public places, museums, galleries. He got the honorary Valvasor Award for sound in museums. Valvasor Award is the highest award for achievements in the field of museology. It has been conferred annually since 1998 by the Slovene Museum Society.

Bostjan Perovsek: Rails Past the Birds

Portrait V is a sound portrait of the rural district of Viseu using the soundscape recordings collected during the Rural Viseu 2.0 project. The work moves through real, surreal and abstract representations of the aural landscape using keynote sounds to provide the context of each section and soundmarks to articulate the structural framework of the work. The three sections of the composition are developed around the ideas of biophony (section 1) - the sounds of vocalizing non-human animals, geophony (section 2) - the naturally occurring non-biological sounds and anthropophony (section 3) - all sounds produced my human agents. Although the sections are inspired by this soundscape taxonomy, the soundscape sound materials are framed by abstract sound objects which are used to direct the action and introduce references beyond the restrictions suggested by this structural idea. The piece aims to communicate a strong sense of place and is a tribute to the landscape and the people inhabiting it.

Biography:
Nikos Stavropoulos' (1975) works range from instrumental to tape and mixed media. He has composed for video and dance and his music has been widely performed and recognised at international level (Bourges, 2000, 2002, Metamorphose, Brussels 2002, SCRIME, Bordeaux 2003, Musica Miso, Potrugal, 2004, Metamorphose, Brussels 2008, Punto de Encuentro Canarias International Electroacoustic Composition Competition 2008, Destellos Foundation 2015, Open Circuit 2016). Other interests include the performance practice of electroacoustic music, diffusion systems and teaching music and music technology. He joined the Music, Sound & Performance Group at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2006 and is a founding member of the Echochroma New Music Research Group.

Nikos Stavropoulos: Portrait V

Parts of these sounds have been used:

0009 – Paisagem audiovisual da ponte de Covelas sobre o Rio Vouga
0021 – Paisagem Audiovisual de Alminha em São Cosmado 
0023 – Paisagem Audiovisual sob o habitat das Rãs em Mosteirinho
0060 – Escoamento de água de tanque junto à escola EB1 em Sanguinhedo de Côta
0072 – Ovelhas a pastar em terreno junto ao aeródromo de Viseu em Folgosa 
0080 – Pássaros em arbusto junto a laranjeiras, horta comunitária e galinheiro na Rua da Costa + Sino em Boa Aldeia
0088 – Paisagem sonora de vento na floresta em Vilar do Monte
0089 – Paisagem sonora ativada de ramos de pinheiro em Vilar do Monte
0090 – Paisagem sonora ativada de folhas de carvalho secas em Vilar do Monte
0093 – Improvisacão sonora em porta de canastro em Vilar do Monte
0103 – Escoamento de água junto ao Lugar da Fonte Santa em Calde 
0113 – Marcar passo frente a pinheiro no lugar de Azival em Cepões
0117 – Vento sobre eucaliptos e pinheiros em baldio junto àEstrada de Santo Amaro em Nelas-Cepões
0120 – Paisagem sonora de chuva sobre paragem de autocarro na Rua da Paz em Barreiros
  
They all appear in waves of differing lengths. The waves are filtered in various degrees, from very steep, which make the sounds bell-like, to wide where you hear almost the original sound.

Biography:
Helene Hedsund has been active at EMS (http://www.elektronmusikstudion.se) in Stockholm, Sweden since 1994. She is currently doing a PhD in Birmingham, UK. See http://helene.hedsund.se

Helene Hedsund: Pastoral

Inspired by Einstein's paper introducing the special theory of relativity titled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," "Sobre a eletrodinâmica dos corpos de trabalho" offers a time-distorted view of the concrete plant in Quarry Maljoga in Dade from the Viseu Rural archive (the only sound source). It portrays the work as it echoes off the landscape in compressed time, frozen time, and smeared timelines. It is a reflection on the efforts of man-made forces, the persistence of natural forces over time, and the interfaces between them.

Biography:
Jeff Morris engages audiences' minds with their surroundings. He has presented work at the Triennale Museum (Milan), Onassis Cultural Center (Athens), D-22 (home of Beijing'' avant-garde music scene), International Symposium on Electronic Art, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum (Austin), the NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, and the Chicago Architecture Foundation's "Open House Chicago." His genre-bending interdisciplinary work has won awards in the Concourse de Bourges, "Music in Architecture" International Symposium, the Un"Cage"d Toy Piano Competition (NYC), and the "Radio Killed the Video Star" Competition (NYC). His writings have been presented at the International Computer Music Conference, Generative Art International Conference, and Computer Art Congress and are published by Leonardo Music Journal, Springer, and IGI Global. He also curates the Fresh Minds Festival of audiovisual art from all over the world. 

http://morrismusic.org

Jeff Morris: Sobre a Eletrodinâmica dos Corpos de Trabalho

"Hábitat imaginario" for voice, bird whistles and field recordings / stereo version
Live intervention for the garden of La Fonoteca Nacional (jardín sonoro) in Mexico City. I composed a 8-channel piece using field recordings of the archive. My chameleon - like voice is interacting with and tuning into this soundscape through mimesis and transformation, creating a strange place between human and nonhuman identities.
Commissioned by Poetica Sonora and Fonoteca Nacional, Mexico City

"Hábitat imaginario" (hier als Stereo Version) ist eine Live Intervention für den Jardín Sonoro der Fonoteca Nacional in Mexico City. Im Garten der Fonoteca  ist permanent ein  8- Kanal-Lautsprecher System installiert. Das Material für das Zuspiel habe ich dem Archiv der Fonoteca entnommen. Ich komponierte vor Ort ein „imaginäres Habitat“ aus gesampelten Geräuschen der Provinzen Mexikos. Loops, und Samples von Klängen von Vögeln, quasielektronisch klingenden Insekten, den verschiedenen Pfiffen der Händler Mexico Cities und vokale Äußerungen wurden Teil dieses Soundscapes. Auch die Live-Atmosphäre des Gartens integrierte sich in das Klangbild.
In meiner Performance interagiere ich als Sängerin mit diesem „imaginären Habitat“ durch Mimesis und Transformation. Die vokalen Klänge scheint losgelöst vom üblichen Klang der menschlichen Stimme zu sein und lösen sich auf in eine Klangwelt von Vögeln, Insekten und elektronisch anmutenden Sounds.
Auftrag der Fonoteca Nacional und Poetica Sonora, Mexico City

Hábitat Imaginario for voice, bird whistles and field recordings, Stereo Version

“Over The Eyes”, inspired by the old saying ”…to pull the wool over the eyes”, is the soundtrack of a multimedia installation created in October 2007 at the Binaural/Nodar residency. The piece includes recordings of conversations, songs and stories during a knitting circle held with the local people along with field recordings of the area, and a text on physiological, biological, and psychological aspects of memory creation and destruction in humans.

Maile Colbert: Over the Eyes

Binaural Nodar is a rural based sound and media arts organization located in the rural Viseu Dão Lafões region (Portugal), where since 2006 have been hosted over 180 sound and media arts projects developed in close connection with the local geographical and social contexts. Binaural Nodar is also a sound art collective that produces its own pieces, particularly those created by Luís Costa, Maile Colbert, Rui Costa, Ana Rodríguez and Manuela Barile.

NUM: I Am Walking In The Woods Of Magic

binauralmedia

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