Inversion
Site-specific Sound Installation for 33 Audio Channels (2014)
Inversion, Installation View, Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 2014; Credit: Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin
The dimensional sound installation Inversion was
developed specifically for the lecture hall of the Tieranatomisches Theater (Animal Anatomy Theater) in Berlin, a domed building designed for veterinary teaching, where animals were dissected in front of an
audience from 1790 onwards.
The installation reverses the given spatial structure – in which spectators looked down onto
the central lifting table – and thus inverts the supposedly hierarchical relationship between humans and animals.
Speakers reproducing a composed arrangement of archival animal voices are placed in the
auditorium's galleries, sounding down toward the center of the
room and becoming audible precisely where animals were once
dissected. In this way, the sound installation reinstates the archival recordings in the present and
gives a voice to the animals that were previously present only in silence.
The animal voices incorporated into the artwork were selected by Moritz Fehr from the animal sound archive at the Natural History Museum in Berlin.
As an inspiration for Inversion also served Willem Swanenburgh's
copperplate engraving of the Anatomical Theater in Leiden, based
on a work by Johannes Woudanus (1610). It depicts an anatomical
theater in which animal skeletons are gathered around the space,
looking down on a dissected corpse.
Animal Voices:
Asio otus (Waldohreule)
Balearica regulorum (Kronenkranich)
Bos taurus taurus (Hausrind)
Bufo viridis (Wechselkröte)
Canis lupus familiaris (Haushund)
Camelus dromedarius (Dromedar)
Cervus elaphus (Rothirsch)
Corvus corax (Kolkrabe)
Elephas maximus (Asiatischer Elefant)
Equus asinus (Hausesel)
Felis chaus (Sumpfluchs)
Gracula religiosa (Beo)
Helarctos malayanus (Malaienbär)
Halichoerus grypus (Kegelrobe)
Luscinia luscinia (Nachtigall)
Martes martes (Steinmarder)
Orcinus orca (Schwertwal)
Ovis aries domestica (Hausschaf)
Panthera leo (Löwe)
Pan troglodytes (Schimpanse)
Phoeniconaias minor (Zwergflamingo)
Sus scrofa (Wildschwein)
Tettigonia viridissima (Großes Heupferd)
Vulpes vulpes (Fuchs)
With the kind support of the Tierstimmenarchiv (Animal Voice Archive) of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin Dr. Karl-Heinz Frommolt, Elektronisches Studio der TU Berlin, Fachgebiet Audiokommunikation, Stereokompost and Studio Potsdam. Curator: Felix Sattler
