The Songs We Sing Amsterdam is a site-specific installation that may be experienced in the vicinity of the Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy from May 27th till June 7th.
Part of multi-city project I am currently doing in Europe titled The Songs Cycle, this project considers the concept of a biotope – small environments shared by humans and other species. According to The naturalist E.O. Wilson, half of the species currently living on Earth will become extinct in the next 100 years. In this new world, we may have to create fictive environments in order to experience a sense of calm and beauty – especially in an urban context.
The Songs We Sing is about connecting our ecological moment with our cognitive/behavioral functions. It ponders the lack of human companion species in a postindustrial Western landscape, and offers a possible solution.
The Songs We Sing–one installation site at the Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy
Comprised of eighteen randomly sampled audio tracts, this installation features bird calls collected from human volunteers between May 5th and May 7th at the Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy. The Songs We Sing attempts to improve the current lack of animal centric sounds in our auditory experience of the natural.
Special thanks to the project participants below:
Hugo Bastidas_Fischreiher,
Andrew Cramer_Oehoe, Theadore Dean_Seidenreiher, Elizabeth Demaray_Rohrdommel, Dylan Koomen_Mallard, Nanny Roed Lauridsen_ Grutto, Abdel Patrijs_Grebe, Ellen Rikkink_Pheasant, Brenda Saunders_Heron Crabier, Eva Schepens_Egrit, Renate Schepen_Roodborstje, Suki Verwiel_Porseleinhoen
For more information on The Songs We Sing and other projects at the Lloyd please see: https://www.lloydhotel.com/en/about-us/cultural-embassy