Etymology of a Siren Sound

2025

Performance and sound installation

Karaoke microphones, field recordings, and air traffic control radio transmissions

Loop duration: 12 minutes 35 seconds; performance duration: 45 minutes

Incorporating field recordings, air traffic control radio transmissions, sonic feedback techniques, karaoke microphones, and vocal demos of death growls reminiscent of aircraft engines, Ari traces the haunting echoes of a traumatic air crash that imprinted on her family–intertwined with her experience of a trans woman–to examine the reverberations that stay with us, and the generative potential of resonance in shaping embodiment.

Friday, September 26, 1997. An Airbus A300B4-220 operating Garuda Indonesia flight GA152 tumbles into mountainous terrain near Sibolangit, Northern Sumatra. The event goes on to become one of the deadliest in Indonesian aviation history, killing all 222 passengers on board, and seeding a deep fear of flying in the artist’s family. Using this event as an impetus for the work, the artist creates a sonic environment which excavates a synaesthetic relationship to movement. What sounds from the past resonate in our psyche? How do they play a part in shaping who we are today?

Etymology of a Siren Sound is part of a collaboration between Rare Sea and Cót Két. The performance was taken place at Rare Sea on Tuesday, June 9, from 19:00 to 20:00.

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