entEr
tap to turn sound on
tap once on specimens to listen
tap twice for a closer look
Humans have forever collected, classified, and recorded nature with an eye to understanding it and controlling it. In Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species, Sistrum proposes the notion of the 'remix' as at once a concept, a method, and an aesthetic attitude for seeing and understanding nature, constructing it as a world beyond humans, not merely a thing we seek to dominate. In this shift in rhetoric, Sistrum hopes to reconfigure the relationship between humans, technology, and nature. Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species runs a machine learning algorithm that perpetually generates never-before-seen specimens out of a database collating data gathered by 19th century colonial scientific expeditions to catalog the flora and fauna of Southeast Asia. These new species are hybrids and mutations that subvert the traditional order of taxonomy. Sistrum distorts and inverts the sounds from field recordings, playing them back randomly, composing a unique soundtrack for their synthetic flora and fauna. Surrounded by these familiar and unfamiliar sounds, plants, and creatures, audiences are invited to reflect on the history of the past. The naming of things in nature is often anthropocentric, but what names could be given to the creatures that the project shows us? To name is to create a relationship between the namer and the thing named, and in raising the question of names, Sistrum asks how humans will relate to nature, how we will interact with the world beyond us.
SISTRUM is a multidisciplinary collective made up of graphic designer Lim Shu Min, sound designer Ramesh Krishnan, and architect Laura Miotto. Their individual technical abilities are put to work exploring the narrative characteristics of sound and environment through collaboration across various media.
This project was supported by the ZER01NE creator platform and presented as a sonic visual installation during ZER01NE Day at S-Factory, Seoul from 19 to 22 October 2023.
CREDITS
Lim Shu Min [visual]
Laura Miotto [spatial]
Ramesh Krishnan [sound]
Yuta Nakayama [physical interactive]
Mao Yuncheng [web development]
Database of specimen illustrations were derived from these sources, courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library:
Plantae Asiaticae rarioresor, or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants, 1830-32.
Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis de l'ille de Java: peints d'apres nature, 1880.
Rumphia, Commentationes botanicae imprimis de plantis Indiae Orientalis, 1835-1848.
Flora Javae nec non insularum adjacentium, 1828-1851.
Atlas ichthyologique des Indes orientales neerlandaises, 1862-1878.
Rhopalocera Malayana: a description of the butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, 1882-1886.
De voornaamste giftslangen van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, 1916.
The Birds of Celebes and the neighbouring islands, 1898.
Zoological researches in Java, 1821-1824.
Illustrations of Indian zoology; chiefly selected from the collection of Major-General Hardwicke, 1830-34.
Humans have forever collected, classified, and recorded nature with an eye to understanding it and controlling it. In Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species, Sistrum proposes the notion of the 'remix' as at once a concept, a method, and an aesthetic attitude for seeing and understanding nature, constructing it as a world beyond humans, not merely a thing we seek to dominate. In this shift in rhetoric, Sistrum hopes to reconfigure the relationship between humans, technology, and nature. Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species runs a machine learning algorithm that perpetually generates never-before-seen specimens out of a database collating data gathered by 19th century colonial scientific expeditions to catalog the flora and fauna of Southeast Asia. These new species are hybrids and mutations that subvert the traditional order of taxonomy. Sistrum distorts and inverts the sounds from field recordings, playing them back randomly, composing a unique soundtrack for their synthetic flora and fauna. Surrounded by these familiar and unfamiliar sounds, plants, and creatures, audiences are invited to reflect on the history of the past. The naming of things in nature is often anthropocentric, but what names could be given to the creatures that the project shows us? To name is to create a relationship between the namer and the thing named, and in raising the question of names, Sistrum asks how humans will relate to nature, how we will interact with the world beyond us.
SISTRUM is a multidisciplinary collective made up of graphic designer Lim Shu Min, sound designer Ramesh Krishnan, and architect Laura Miotto. Their individual technical abilities are put to work exploring the narrative characteristics of sound and environment through collaboration across various media.
This project was supported by the ZER01NE creator platform and presented as a sonic visual installation during ZER01NE Day at S-Factory, Seoul from 19 to 22 October 2023.
CREDITS
Lim Shu Min [visual]
Laura Miotto [spatial]
Ramesh Krishnan [sound]
Yuta Nakayama [physical interactive]
Mao Yuncheng [web development]
Database of specimen illustrations were derived from these sources, courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library:
Plantae Asiaticae rarioresor, or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants, 1830-32.
Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis de l'ille de Java: peints d'apres nature, 1880.
Rumphia, Commentationes botanicae imprimis de plantis Indiae Orientalis, 1835-1848.
Flora Javae nec non insularum adjacentium, 1828-1851.
Atlas ichthyologique des Indes orientales neerlandaises, 1862-1878.
Rhopalocera Malayana: a description of the butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, 1882-1886.
De voornaamste giftslangen van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, 1916.
The Birds of Celebes and the neighbouring islands, 1898.
Zoological researches in Java, 1821-1824.
Illustrations of Indian zoology; chiefly selected from the collection of Major-General Hardwicke, 1830-34.
Humans have forever collected, classified, and recorded nature with an eye to understanding it and controlling it. In Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species, Sistrum proposes the notion of the 'remix' as at once a concept, a method, and an aesthetic attitude for seeing and understanding nature, constructing it as a world beyond humans, not merely a thing we seek to dominate. In this shift in rhetoric, Sistrum hopes to reconfigure the relationship between humans, technology, and nature. Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species runs a machine learning algorithm that perpetually generates never-before-seen specimens out of a database collating data gathered by 19th century colonial scientific expeditions to catalog the flora and fauna of Southeast Asia. These new species are hybrids and mutations that subvert the traditional order of taxonomy. Sistrum distorts and inverts the sounds from field recordings, playing them back randomly, composing a unique soundtrack for their synthetic flora and fauna. Surrounded by these familiar and unfamiliar sounds, plants, and creatures, audiences are invited to reflect on the history of the past. The naming of things in nature is often anthropocentric, but what names could be given to the creatures that the project shows us? To name is to create a relationship between the namer and the thing named, and in raising the question of names, Sistrum asks how humans will relate to nature, how we will interact with the world beyond us.
SISTRUM is a multidisciplinary collective made up of graphic designer Lim Shu Min, sound designer Ramesh Krishnan, and architect Laura Miotto. Their individual technical abilities are put to work exploring the narrative characteristics of sound and environment through collaboration across various media.
This project was supported by the ZER01NE creator platform and presented as a sonic visual installation during ZER01NE Day at S-Factory, Seoul from 19 to 22 October 2023.
CREDITS
Lim Shu Min [visual]
Laura Miotto [spatial]
Ramesh Krishnan [sound]
Yuta Nakayama [physical interactive]
Mao Yuncheng [web development]
Database of specimen illustrations were derived from these sources, courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library:
Plantae Asiaticae rarioresor, or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants, 1830-32.
Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis de l'ille de Java: peints d'apres nature, 1880.
Rumphia, Commentationes botanicae imprimis de plantis Indiae Orientalis, 1835-1848.
Flora Javae nec non insularum adjacentium, 1828-1851.
Atlas ichthyologique des Indes orientales neerlandaises, 1862-1878.
Rhopalocera Malayana: a description of the butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, 1882-1886.
De voornaamste giftslangen van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, 1916.
The Birds of Celebes and the neighbouring islands, 1898.
Zoological researches in Java, 1821-1824.
Illustrations of Indian zoology; chiefly selected from the collection of Major-General Hardwicke, 1830-34.
New species found. Give it a name.
SUBMIT