Zeitgeist is an interdisciplinary media art project that investigates memory, intergenerational trauma and archiving. It asks how personal histories are recorded, distorted and reinterpreted within a technological and artistic framework. Drawing on sonology, the project combines algorithmic processes and modular systems in an installation in which archival fragments take on new meanings and sonic forms through granular sound synthesis.
Research
Zeitgeist brings together artistic, dramaturgical and technical strands around three questions:
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How can granular sound synthesis of personal archival material, including material relating to intergenerational trauma, generate a sonic representation of memory, loss and recovery that is collectively recognisable?
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How do sound synthesis techniques influence the perception of trauma and memory, and how can the technological infrastructure – code, hardware and signal – be employed as a metaphor of form for the fragility of memory?
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How can a generative system function as a mutable memory that interprets and questions human ordering, narrative and space?
Method
Zeitgeist builds on Barkode’s working method, which is grounded in sonology and transforms fragmentary archival material in real time through modular systems and algorithmic and generative processes. The project draws on a personal archive including voice recordings, diaries, letters, recorded conversations, sketches, script notes, medical records and field recordings. These sources are housed in a database, where they are systematically ordered and algorithmically connected. Together, the database and algorithms form a flexible framework: they make relationships and patterns visible and provide a context in which the material can be examined, restructured and applied artistically.
The sound installation consists of a modular set-up in which hardware and software work together to process the fragments. In this system, sound fragments are manipulated through granular sound synthesis: split into micro-particles, rearranged and recombined, so that new sound structures emerge. The modular configuration functions as an adaptive filter: individual Eurorack modules influence the frequency, pitch, amplitude, rhythm and spatial positioning of the sound. Linking these modules – driven by the generative and algorithmic processes – creates complex interactions through which the fragments are brought together and shaped into autonomous sound compositions. Within the installation, the compositions add narrative and emotional layering, allowing the audience to hear and experience the fragmentary nature of memory and the complexity of intergenerational trauma.
Relevance
Zeitgeist offers an innovative approach to memory and intergenerational trauma through technology and art. The project shows how art and technology together can create a living archive in which individual and collective experiences merge and remain in transition. The installation presents this archive as an evolving whole in which memory is relived and restructured and lived experience continues to transform, while the audience can follow shifts in meaning and reflect on its own narrative. In this way, Zeitgeist encourages reflection on how our perception of memory is shaped and opens a dialogue on contemporary social issues and artistic developments. Barkode’s vision positions art as an archive in motion. The project thereby contributes to the fields of media art, sound art and artistic archival research.
Personal motivation
During a mental health crisis (2010–2013), documenting became a way of keeping a grip on reality. Capturing sounds, conversations and moments provided an anchor. What was then a necessity developed into a working method in which recording and reinterpretation are central. This archive now forms the core of Barkode’s practice and is used in this project to investigate processes of memory, loss and recovery.
