The phone box is ringing. Is it for you? Yes! Take the call and dial a number from zero to nine. You will hear a recording from the natural soundscape that surrounds you. After you listen to it, you are invited to leave a voice message for the mountains. You can share a memory that connects you to this sound or a thought about this landscape. If you could talk to the mountains, what would you tell them?
“Please leave a message after the tone!”
For ten days, sound artist Mélia Roger recorded the sounds of Toggenburg – the cows, the birds, the water, the ants, the resonances of nature in human buildings and much more. She captured the sonic identity of the place and stored it in the “Archive Cabin” – as a memory of these acoustic impressions, which could change at any time in the near future due to climate change.
But the sound identity of the area also includes human voices and language. It is in language that memories of sounds are preserved and the emotions expressed that are in turn tied to sounds. There is the pleasant feeling when the first bells of the cows on the alp announce spring. There are the yodels that express this feeling. There is the joyful excitement you feel when you hike through the mountains, across humming meadows and over gurgling boulders, and later tell the story of your journey. There are the songs and rhythms and melodies inspired by this landscape that are passed from person to person.
Solastalgia – the nostalgia of anticipation
With the acoustic memory archive, the artist Mélia Roger wants to draw attention to something called “solastalgia” – a neologism of the
present.
“Solastalgia is a modern concept to describe an emotional connection to a place that is changing due to climate change. You have a nostalgic feeling about a place even though you haven't moved away. With my work, I want to draw attention to how Toggenburg will change over the years due to global warming. I want to show how we can continue to have an emotional connection to this place and maintain that relationship.”
The sounds of Toggenburg are changing – today and in the future. With an acoustic testimony to the soundscape, you are helping to build an archive of memories.
About the artist
Mélia Roger is a sound designer for film and art installations. She has a classical music background and a master's degree in sound engineering (ENS Louis-Lumière, Paris, France). She completed her last year of her master's degree in the transdisciplinary studies program at ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland), where she developed an artistic approach to sound and worked with voice and field recordings. She now divides her time between Paris and Zurich, working on the post-production of films and her own artistic works.
www.meliaroger.com ↗
