TWELVE THOUSAND AND TWENTY: “utopian soundspace” comes to EPFL
Julie Semoroz and TWELVE THOUSAND AND TWENTY © Isabelle Meister
From March 8-13 at EPFL Pavilion A, CDH Culture will present a unique installation by Swiss artist Julie Semoroz combining sound, art, and science, and featuring several performances and a roundtable discussion.
What if, in a very slow evolutive process, humanity became one body, merged with its environment? A sensitive body, capable of perceiving the invisible; of communicating with the species sharing its existence and of tuning its heartbeats to the rhythm of plants and animals? TWELVE THOUSAND AND TWENTY sets the body in a reconciled future, ten thousand years from now, in a holistic era where everyone would be able to vibrate with the world by carefully listening to the living.
By conceptualizing a utopian soundspace, Julie Semoroz explores the idea of a positive and harmonious habituation of human beings to nature. In an augmented body perspective, where technology fuses with the body, the artist stages a listening device, diffusing sound through the body and allowing one to physically feel its properties.
Born from the collaboration with the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (SCAS) of the University of Geneva with prof. Didier Grandjean at Campus Biotech, TWELVE THOUSAND AND TWENTY refers to interoception: the internal perception of sound, which is a scientific field still largely unexplored. It acts on the ability to feel internal physiological activity -- to perceive the blood pulsing in our veins, the sound of viscera, the air drawn by our breath -- and use them as indicators of our emotions as well as of our bodily state.
From recorded sounds such as field recordings, human voices, and various sounds produced by animals, re-worked and manipulated with soft/hardwares, Julie Semoroz sculpts a fertile, organic sound texture; a noisy breeding ground teeming with life.
Full program (free entry to all events):
March 8 to 13, EPFL Pavilions, Pavilion A
11-18h: Xyloscille sound and visual installation
March 8 and 9, Rolex Learning Center:
12-13h: Interspecies communication performance with Julie Semoroz and Fabio Bergamaschi
March 10, EPFL Pavilions A
19h: Foralgues concert with Julie Semoroz (voice, machines) and the Ensemble Contrechamps (Martina Brodbeck, cello and Rada Hadjikostova, violin)
17h30: Interoception and animal vocalization round table with Didier Grandjean (CISA, UNIGe, Campus Biotech, NCCR Evolving Language), Emilie Genty (UNINe, NCCR evolving Language), Julie Semoroz. Moderation: Alain Dufaux (operational director of the MetaMedia Center, EPFL).
Julie Semoroz is a sound artist born in 1984. She lives and works in Geneva. Through her work she suggests alternative views and induces reflection on processes pertaining to urban space, ecology, utopia, and togetherness, through an anthropological approach combined with art. She works on the invisible and does research on information, non-verbal forms of communication, and sound frequencies, in collaboration with neuroscientists. She experiments with ambient sound forms, and voice and field recordings are central elements of her research. She creates multiple, heterogeneous projects, whether solo or through collaborations and with collectives in art spaces, theatres, or the public space. She develops performances involving visual art, sound, dance, and installation.
Scientific partners
Centre Interfacultaire en Sciences Affectives (CISA) de l’Université de Genève
Campus Biotech
NCCR Evolving Language
Project supported by the SNSF Agora Fund
Images to download
