This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing


Coevorden

Under the mellow summer sky, humans gather on the land to celebrate everyday survival. Their songs and dances move the air upward with an expansive smoke figure. The vibratory ripples disconcert the non-humans on the land and above – fungi, snails, trees, insects, birds, and bees. Free-spirited rivers are humanly manipulated and reduced into smaller water bodies and canals for family boats to sail uninterrupted. On the open deck of one of the boats, an empty cup, a half-eaten apple, and a beer mug with leftovers from last night wait eagerly for their owners’ return. Just around the makeshift jetty, at the busy street corner, fresh fishes are fried for the gastronomic pleasure of the public. The pensive eyes of the fish stare at the ravenous customers. The festive sound bridges the anthropogenic bodies divided by the ground beneath their feet and the land they occupy. The laughter of the elders and the merry children’s murmurs make the over-bridge screech in pleasure. Not far from the site of the boat festival, a lone windmill takes a cautious pause as the low breeze runs further away. An abandoned factory smells the scene and leaves a heavy breath.

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Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence

23/08/2023

Coevorden

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing


De Doorbraak

Walking by the never-ending canal side, one can reach the large body of water. The forest intends to protect the lake from human invasion, but human-made machines cut through the trees to occupy the aquatic land. The campsite releases smokes of barbequing meat and vegetables. The garbage cans are thrown into the lake. The dead body of a tree trunk resurfaces in the dense and contaminated water. Fish hunters and tourists drive itinerant motorboats through uneven waves. Their engine sounds to split the silence of the pool, and the underwater creatures stop vibrating in fearful response. A smaller flock of fish swims around a bait, hoping their curiosity is not under surveillance. Fungi and moss on the deadwood get wet thinking of the mating season and the forthcoming rain. Clouds darken their skeptical view over the divided land as they leave for greener pastures. Indeed, like unabashed and determined termites, humans have cut the ground into pieces of land to easily occupy homogenized earth into perfect geometric shapes: squares, rectangles, and circles, if seen from above.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

De Doorbraak

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing

Delden

An empty chair suspends in the morning ambience. Someone, who was here a day ago, left without telling me where they were going. The warmth of the spot where they were sitting evaporates in the summer sun. The rail station's desolate platform ruminates over the fallen leaves' silence. All are rendered empty in this full-blown morning. A minor chord sustains amid the imaginary vibration of the rail tracks departing the station. The pulse stays on the cusp of forgetting. Passengers gather slowly under the shade. One face replaces the other. The impermanent shadows shift perspectives as a languid train arrives and readies itself to leave the station. After the fading footsteps disappear, the emptier platform waits for nothing. Sudden rain pours down on the persevering trees and the unemotional plants of the human-made gardens. Lines of downward water appear on the stoic over-bridges joining the city with the hinterlands. The heavy traffic's transmitting reverberations on their metallic bodies reflect the stories of human occupation of the land to turn them into utility zones. Wastelands become unwanted, even when insects sing a song from their homes. The roads and the rail tracks long to meet each other in their human-made forever separation. 

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Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

Delden

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing


Klooster Denekamp 

Between the epitaphs, busy bees fly in and out in haste. The memorial stones in the cemetery are breathless in their perpetual forgetting. The shadows of the primordial trees fall on the darker pathway, wet after a mild rain. The timely call of the cathedral undulates the air, resonating with the rhythmic movement of the church bell. Inside the house of prayer, visionary images float in a dream state. The female chorus carries the warmth of the caring walls. As the rain starts to pour down again, now heavily, the tin roofs of the windowpane speak out in pitter-patter. The sultry waterdrops travel across the longing body of the monastery. The eternally waiting flesh of the architectural figure strains in moist anticipation. Like a homeless bird on a stormy evening, a nomadic nonbeliever observes the proceedings by de-territorialized listening. At the end of the cemetery, a group of wandering cows stares at the giant air conditioner machine in this medieval cloister with awe and disbelief.   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

Klooster Denekamp

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing


Enschede Harbour

A drugged metallic fence shudders in a trance as a large cargo ship enters the narrow human-made waterway. The haughty corner of the vessel touches the concrete-covered landmass bringing news of the sea, and the encounter generates flashes of flickers, just like memories of long-lost lovers. The kiss of the land and water cannot sustain as a heavy truckload of metal garbage is thrown into this constellation. The sharp sounds of the landing of scraps on the hardened soil runs like shivers down the spine of this late-modernist harbour. The proud tire of the truck crushes a lonely snail. Their flesh meets the dead earth. A group of flesh-eating ants migrates toward the leftover lands of the machines. The metal limbs of the ship cry out in pain as it hits the lifeless girder. The detritus of human habitat gathers in piles. The series of motorboats under repair suspends their compulsion for movement temporarily. The impatient ship gurgles out a husky moan. The over-enthusiastic crane caresses the waiting body of the ship to extract resources with a cyborgian button; they dream of a return to the sea.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

Enschede Harbour

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing

Haimersweg

As another hungry evening descends on the immeasurable stretch of the land, a lone-wolf electric bulb opens its watchful eyes and glances at the darkening unknown. The moon appears subdued and pale beside the righteousness of the lamppost. The construction site is awash in the harsh light of the watchtower, as the work had stopped in an accepted silence. A medieval church stands like an awkward relic beside the rubble of growth and development. There is a hole in the iron fence through which questions on land use and rights of nature can enter. But the questions are confronted with brownish contaminated water pumped by the drilling machines on the site. The sound of the engine in this ethereal evening drowns out the heavy breathings of the insects at their resting place. The large pit in the earth may not mean extracting local resources. Still, it suggests that the immateriality and mysticism of soil are ignored and suppressed for the technological appropriation of land. The inert metallic rods and clamps gradually replace the intricate soil layers and stones to erect an epitaph.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

Haimersweg

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing


Hof Espelo

The birds and the trees are in a socially accepted relationship. Perhaps it’s friendship, collaboration for projects, or a local acquaintance. Their continuing exchanges enlighten the forest. The insects, fern, moss, and shyer fungi act as mediators or interlocutors. The warmth with which the moss embraces the tree trunk and the bees that dispatch whispering messages from one leaf to another and from one branch to its distant counterparts is palpable. It is how the forest grows and stays alive even after the human mass occupation of the land to appropriate them for farming, making factories, and having private ownership to breed cattle for pure profit making. Even a figure of dead wood knows this story as it hosts gatherings of insects and flies, bacteria, and fungi, to celebrate their survival. The faithful dogs of the farmer, however, intermittently bark to voice their owners’ disapproval of cohabiting and cooperation, collaboration, and co-listening. As a dog violently chases a stranger’s bicycle bells, it echoes the hostility of the landowner, feeling righteously entitled to practice their ownership and grasp on the land, even when the soil resists, by turning infertile. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

23 Aug 2023

Hof Espelo

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing


Twente Airport

Waiting is contagious for those who are hopeful. Waiting survives only in hope. Perhaps hope is the name of our attending nurse and everyday caretaker; we struggle to keep up the day they are absent. How long can one wait for a flight to land and take off at an idle airport? A deep schism exists between freer air, the occupied land, and the humanmade port. The empty runway listens to its lonely heartbeat. The air runs away and suddenly pauses as the fallen leaves circle each other. The plane never lands on the ground; only its inaudible engines and the propeller reverberates silently in the ghostly moments of waiting. I have very little to say as an onlooker – as I am in semantic fatigue. I am standing in the middle of a quasi-functional airbase, on the verge of unbecoming to an operational airport, constantly suspended in an unsure posterity or remaining stuck as a mere spectacle of an aerodrome from a nearby anthropogenic viewing spot. In this moment of suspended desire, I feel your incapacity to engage. Through the filters of your girly sunglasses, the sun meets your eyes in shades of color. The metal ring on your finger gets rusty, just like the unused escalier waiting openly, seasoned in sun, rain, and thirsty wind. The contact between the unattended tarmac and the ghostly, abandoned airplane remains unconsummated, just like our relationship, waiting till no end. To go somewhere, one needs to have an urge to move. On this futile landing, I lose the motivation to leave this page.   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

Twente Airport

This sound work is part of the Album 'Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence' for Terra Libera: soundcloud.com/budhaditya/sets/landing


Vriezenveen

A bullet passes through the water in slow motion. The dams of the canals are fragile; the reverberation stays like a nightmare memory. Someone appeared in the dream and told me, “You don’t belong here; you can’t stand on this ground.” I looked at the ground I stood on, and it disappeared. While falling, I heard a ship horn and saw the brittle waterside houses cracked in response. As their walls started to collapse, my head, too, touched the grassland. Someone leaned on my face and said through their prosthetic gold teeth, “You are not wanted here.” The pier was divided into two pieces and opened for the cargo ship to pass. Its two opening arms searched for the air in the sky. Unemotionally passing clouds shed a shadow on the land that caught fire. Over my head, surveillance helicopters were circling like hungry moths. The factory workers were listening to pop songs. The high ceiling of the shade muddled the voice in a morphed tone. A ship cut through the land as I closed my eyes.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terra Libera is a large-scale project at Rijksmuseum Twenthe underscoring transhistorical and associative engagement with land in the East Netherlands, examining how people have exploited the land economically from a Christian, anthropocentric perspective and, in so doing, created new problems for themselves and their environment. Drawing on the relational entanglements between land, environment, and sound, the artistic research contribution Landing: Rituals for Situated Sonic Reverence for Terra Libera develops a participatory artistic position led by an extensive auto-ethnographic fieldwork in the region. The artwork is manifold in dissemination including an exhibition, publications, a series of public interventions, listening walks and performances. The contribution asks the question: how is it possible to unpack the evolving relationship between site, environment, and sound, and how this complex relationship unfolds in the specific site of Enschede, Overijssel, Twente-region and the East Netherlands? The artwork is developed through environmental sounds and ephemera gathered by context-aware field recording and sited listening, psychogeographic drifting and situated writing as methodologies to investigate the thematic of the project by an intersubjective and reciprocal engagement with the region.

Supported by:
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
ArtEZ, The Netherlands

Vriezenveen

'Talking Field', excerpts from ongoing project 'Decomposing Landscape' (2015-). 

Decomposing Landscape Excerpts

Excerpts from "Exile and Other Syndromes" (2015 - 2018) - installation for 24 channels sound and 4 channels visuals - pilot version was developed and premiered at IEM, Kunstuniversität Graz. More info: http://budhaditya.org/projects/doors-of-nothingness/exile-and-other-syndromes/

Exile and Other Syndromes

Exile and Other Syndromes_excerpts

Sketches from 'Doors of Nothingness', an ongoing project that frames temporal thoughts emerging from mundane auditory situations of everyday. An interconnected collection of texts and binaural audios are the primary outcome of the project. 

Excerpts from a composition for archival field recordings of climate variables, radio-captured environmental phenomena and climate data, double bass, and electronics. More info: http://budhaditya.org/projects/decomposing-landscape/towards-an-amicable-end/

Towards an Amicable End

AM experiments from project Radiosyncracy: http://budhaditya.org/projects/expanded-objects/radiosyncracy/

Radiosyncracy - AM

FM experiments from project Radiosyncracy: http://budhaditya.org/projects/expanded-objects/radiosyncracy/

Radiosyncracy - FM

Excerpts from the ongoing project ‘The Well Tempered City’, that seeks to understand auditory perception and digital mediation of hybrid urban structures.

The Well Tempered City Book I excerpts

"Landscape in Metamorphoses", a 26-minute collection of field recordings released on German label Gruenrekorder (2008); the work documents the stormy environmental changes taking place in Tumbani, "one of the busiest industrial belts at the Bengal-Bihar border" in India. Recorded in February - April 2007.

Landscape in Metamorphoses preview

Excerpts from ‘San Lorenzo’, an inter-media installation, produced in collaboration with Fondazione Studio Marangoni, for still image projection and composed sound environment; exhibited in Florence, May 2008. 

San Lorenzo excerpt

Excerpts from 'elegy for Bangalore' released on Gruenrekorder - an outcome of the project 'Eye Contact with the City'

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