The Garden of Sound is a collection of sound and audio-visual installations that connect radiophonic art and botany, exploring the relationships between humans, plants, animals, and machines.

Using primarily the language of experimental sound and leaving verbal and rational elements aside, the works delve into spaces beyond human hearing, hidden or overlooked. Living organisms and inanimate nature are explored within the inaudible spectrum, with connections formed at the level of intuition, emotion, and imagination. In an attempt to momentarily shift humans from their dominant position in the Anthropocene and place them in an equal stance with the living world surrounding them, technology is used to bring them into a sonic symbiosis with other species.

ZVUKOŽBUN

The central piece, Zvukožbun, is an interactive radio play that layers and reinterprets the soundscape of the garden, creating a collective sonic portrait of its inhabitants—plants, animals, humans, and even machines. Delving deep into the inaudible parts of the spectrum, where bats reside and perhaps other yet-to-be-discovered beings, the work invites the listener to merge their perception with the mediated stimuli of the garden and open a new playful space within themselves.
Composed from recordings made in the Jevremovac Botanical Garden, utilizing temporal sound manipulation, and featuring an original composition by Jakov Munižaba performed on the EMS Synthi 100 in the Electronic Studio of Radio Belgrade, this work reveals previously inaccessible sonic spaces of the garden.

Krediti/Credits:

Authors: Marija Stojnić i Jakov Munižaba
Creative and technical support: Karkatag collective

Voices: Tomica Mišljenović, Olivera Popović, Maja Petrović, Mira Fiškalović, Bojana Jadranin, moorhens, bats, bees, crows, and other creatures from the Garden.

Biographies:

Marija Stojnić (Valjevo, 1986) directs films that blend documentary and experimental artistic forms. Her award-winning film Speak So I Can See You has screened at MoMA, and festivals in Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Melbourne, and Munich. Marija earned her master’s degree from The New School in 2014. She is a co-founder of the vocal group Rosa.

Jakov Munižaba (Belgrade, 1982) has designed sound for over one hundred films, many of which have been screened at festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Sundance. He has directed radio dramas, composed film music, and is teaching sound as s professor in Belgrade and Podgorica. He earned his PhD at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, the University of Arts in Belgrade, in 2019. He is a regular collaborator of Radio Belgrade's Electronic Studio.

Creative-technical support: Karkatag

Acknowledgments: Radio Belgrade, Jeveremovac Botanical Garden