Tate Modern
BMW Tate Live Exhibition: Ten Days Six Nights (
South Tank
Friday 31 March 2017
10-18 pm Free entry
20 Live Tickets available
'Filmmaker and artist Carlos Casas presents the world premiere of Sanctuary, a site-specific sound environment by day that is transformed into an immersive live cinema experience in the evening. The free daytime installation explores spatial sound and the affective potential of infrasound – low-frequency noise, such as that used by elephants to communicate across long distances – as well as its connection with architectural space, music and psychology. A specially designed infrasound speaker located in the centre of the space is the first of its kind to reproduce the full range and depth of elephant communication. These infrasound tests are accompanied by sounds recorded in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park and diffused through an Ambisonics 3D sound spatialisation system, a full sphere surround sound technology. Casas invites visitors to lie down and experience this experimental sonic environment over the course of the day.
Inspired by the myth of the elephants’ graveyard, Carlos Casas’ Sanctuary is an immersive live film experience taking up themes of extinction, interspecies communication and the cinematic imaginary. Part adventure film, part experimental nature documentary, the narrative follows Nga, an aging elephant, and Sanra, his mahout, on their journey through a jungle in Sri Lanka. The pair is followed closely by a group of poachers who disappear one by one under mysterious circumstances. A spectacle of stroboscopic light signals the journey’s transition to a purely sonic experience, featuring live sound and infrasound recorded and developed by sound artist Chris Watson in collaboration with spatial sound specialist Tony Myatt.
Sanctuary is an installation and live iteration of Cemetery, an in-progress film project that has taken Casas around the world to locate the origins of the elephant graveyard myth.
A decade in the making, this expansive project pays homage to the classic adventure films and documentaries that enthralled Casas as a child.'
Sanctuary is a project by Carlos Casas.
Sound by Chris Watson with Tony Myatt.
Cemetery Film by Carlos Casas
Cinematography by Benjamin Echazarreta
Location sound and mix by Marc Parazon
Editing by Felipe Guerrero.
Music by Sebastian Escofet, Ariel Guzik.
Sound by Chris Watson
Sounds and infrasound recorded by Chris Watson and Tony Myatt in collaboration with Joyce Poole.
Spatial sound presentation and audio control software by Tony Myatt.
Infrasound speaker designed by Tony Myatt and William Backhouse, University of Surrey supported by Volt Loudspeakers Ltd.
Prototype infra sound loudspeaker driver by Volt Loudspeakers Ltd. Thanks to : University of Surrey Department of Music and Media.
Produced by:
Map Productions; Elena Hill, Director, Soda Film+Art; Olivier Marboeuf, Spectre Productions, La Fabrique Phantom; Krzysztof Dabrowsky, Kimnes&Bersch.
Project is supported by:
DICREAM France;
CNAP France;
FIDLAB AwardFrance;
La région Bretagne, France
Wellcome Trust, UK Small Arts Awards Fund;
Outset SW.
Image: Jungle series IV. 2017 Carlos Casas, Courtesy of the artist.
Design by Metodo Studio
