ROBERTO  FUSCO

The space of a year is a multichannel audiovisual installation, played in a 15-minute loop. Projections are cast on opposite walls or screens and four speakers placed in a rectangular formation.
The visual material consists of highly processed videos and photos collected from the nature in different seasons of the year. The sound material is based on field recordings also collected in the nature in different seasons of the year.

The space of a year unveils and explores the sonic and visual territories that we inhabit and the transformations that they undergo during the year. Sometimes these changes are sudden and strong, but other times they just go by gradually or completely unnoticed.
The changing sonic and visual textures that we attribute to different seasons of the year are dissected, blended, disrupted and distorted. The installation contemplates how different notions of the sonic and visual transformations that surround us reflect our perception of time – and, on the other hand, how our perception of time is anchored in acoustic terrains.
Walking around in the space deepens the imaginative and immersive dimension. The sonic palette triggers personal memories and subjective perceptions of familiar places.
The space of a year creates a dialogue among the inhabitants of the same latitude through the experience of a common sonic and visual imaginary and the passage of time.

The fieldwork towards the realization of the installation has been carried out during two residencies: Arteles in Hämeenkyrö , September 2012 and AiR Bergen at USF Verftet in Bergen, January – March 2013. As such the installation presents different realities depending on the time of the year that belong to similar latitudes.

In particular, the field recordings include the sound of footsteps on different surfaces (sand, leaves, snow, etc.) during different times of the year (ice, snow, rain, dry and wet material). Contact microphones are placed on the floor letting people in the space activate an alternative soundscape with their footsteps. These sounds echo and tightly follow the visitor’s exploration of the augmented space. The visitor witnesses the gradual separation or divorce between the processed sound coming from the speakers and the sound source, their feet in contact with the floor. Ultimately it is the sound activated by the participant that creates an embodied relation to the space, allowing him to immerse himself in the imaginative dimension evoked by the produced soundscape.