Echoes of Us (2025)
Created in collaboration with sound artist Marcin Sky.
“Echoes of us” is a generative audio installation weaving together individual voices into a collective audio experience. Made by Pedro Gil Farias and Marcin Sky.
As an audio exploration of agonism, a concept from political theory describing productive struggle between differing positions, Echoes of Us investigates the tensions and resonances that emerge when difference is not resolved, but allowed to persist.
The installation consists of a four channel audio setup, made up of translucent corrugated walls, each fitted with audio transducers, a computer to run the generative soundscape (Ableton Live and MAX for live) and a a suspended microphone that invites visitors to speak their mind.
Their voice is captured and echoed across the space, fading away as it travels through the installation. When no one is speaking, a generative soundscape plays, built from previous recordings — an evolving sonic archive layered into a collective audio experience.
The first version of the installation was developed for Art Rotterdam 2025, curated by Unity in Diversity Collective. There we explored conceptually the use of overlapping dreams as a way to make tangible the tensions of gentrification, particularly in Rotterdam Zuid
Soundscape
The installation runs on Mac mini with Ableton Live (+ several modified Max for Live devices) and a shell script that automatically receives the recorded files and sorts them.
Using a modified version of Dillon Bastan’s Coalascence each time someone speaks to the microphone it creates adds a recording to the growing archive of voices that feeds a neural network that chops the samples and organises the slices based on their similarity.
Credits
This work was developed in collaboration with sound artist Marcin Sky and showcased at DHB Art Space, curated by UID (Unity in Diversity), during Art Rotterdam 2025.
Special thanks to Jeanthalou Haynes and Houcem Bellakoud from UID, Charlotte Nijsten from Art Rotterdam and Folkert Oosting and Martijn Blom from DHB.
Supported by CBK Rotterdam (Centre for Visual Arts Rotterdam)