taalem advent calendar 2024 – day 9
“Weathering Inside” was composed more than 10 years ago and sat dormant until the generous invitation came from taâlem to contribute to the advent calendar 2024 project. The source sounds are recordings from various built environments that fell into the cracks of history while their material constructions become subject to ‘weathering’ from human and ‘natural’ elements. These spaces acquire a character of their own beyond their original intent as they decay over time. For this work, human interventions become sonic evidence, as improvised actions bring about momentary life-like qualities to the objects strewn about in the vacant spaces they inhabit.
I do not believe in the idea of ‘abandoned’ places and prefer to think of such spaces as being freed from conventional utility and use value that gets placed on them within the constructs of property and ownership etc. The concept of weathering is important here as it is exposure to the earthly elements that erode the structures we build. In many cases, the materials simply return to where they came from, but I find this to be a more curious metaphor for human life where weathering takes on a more paradoxical meaning. As we spend the majority of our lives in sheltered existence of environments of our own creation, where does weathering take place? To what then do we weather and what relation do we have to the places and objects that do weather in the end?
released December 9, 2024
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