‘Bottlemen’ + ‘TESTIMONIUM’ – an audio-visual composition about waste
TESTIMONIUM is an audio-visual composition created by Jacob Kirkegaard from recordings from waste, recycling and wastewater facilities in Denmark and Latvia as well as from one of the world’s largest landfills; the Dandora dumpingsite in Nairobi, Kenya
With vibration sensors placed inside endless piles of organic waste and on massive incinerators, hydrophones lowered in wastewater and heavily contaminated rivers, and acoustic microphones pointed at metal, glass and plastic sorted by hand or machine, TESTIMONIUM listens beyond the immediate stench from discarded matter and into its physical core and industrialised journey. An acoustically detailed powerful and bittersweet homage to the midden of civilisation and a testimonium for the future.
This project is created in coorporation with the United Nations Human Settlement Programme / UN-HABITAT in Nairobi, Kenya. The collaboration continued throughout 2023 developing new sound works and interviews for WASTE WISE CITIES creating awareness of plastic waste.
For the screening of ‘Bottlemen’, Jacob Kirkegaard introduces the work to the audience before Big Bio’s unique speaker system comes into its own in an extraordinary sound experience.