ARGENTORATUM
This sound sculpture emerges from an immersive experience in the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin, the most polluted river in Latin America. The journey through its waters and shores shaped the creative process, guiding the capture of images and sounds that document a landfill landscape artificially constructed over decades of accumulation sedimentation.
Rather than beautifying environmental devastation, the work seeks to foster awareness and a deeper connection with this endangered ecosystem. Through detailed observation of its forms, textures, and sounds, it makes visible the complexity of this reality and its ecological impact.
The result is a large-scale wooden sculpture composed of interwoven layers that evoke the geological strata and accumulated waste of the basin. Its fragmented structure reflects the chaotic superposition of the territory, while its sonic composition gives it a voice of its own.
Within its vibrations resonate the testimony of a wounded space, the helplessness in the face of irreversible pollution, and the resilience of the organisms that continue to inhabit this shifting landscape.
The title, Argentoratum, alludes to the historical relationship between humankind and territory, connecting times and geographies through the materiality that persists throughout the planet’s geological history.
The Engineering of Resilience
The sonic universe of Argentoratum is an exploration of sub-bass frequencies designed to provoke visceral vibrations. Using a custom 6-speaker spatial system, 4 of which are embedded within the wooden structure, we developed a routing protocol that allows sound to be emitted randomly. This creates an organic, shifting soundscape that reflects the chaotic sedimentation of the territory.
Format: Custom 6-point Spatial Audio (Embedded 5-inch speakers + external reinforcement).
Audio Logic: Digital noise, machinic soundscapes, and sub-frequency physical immersion.
Tech Stack: Photogrammetry-to-AI sonification, custom spatial routing.
Exhibition within the framework of the art and technology program Presente Continuo a training, production and international exchange program for thinkers, curators, artists, researchers
in exact sciences, social sciences and humanities, scientists and technologists.
Program organized by the Williams Foundation and the Bunge & Born Foundation and with the support of the Andreani
Foundation
ARGENTORATUM
Project by METACOSTA