matter into matter
Digital track, 17:30.
Click here to listen to Matter into Matter.
Matter into Matter is a translation of the geometry of an outdoor, brutalist concrete stairway in Park Antona Codellija (Anton Codelli Park), Ljubljana, Slovenia, into an audial expression, rendering its materiality perceptible through sound. Using open-source photogrammetry software to constructed a 3D model of the stairway, the work applies databending techniques to convert the digital model’s vertex data into sound. The work bridges the tangible and the intangible, transmuting architectural weight and form into a vibrational narrative.
The resulting sound expression is not pure mimicry of the stairway’s physical characteristics, but an interpretation of its structural and material logic. The de/constructive process emphasises minimal post-production to maintain and alignment of the sonic output with the raw materiality of its source. In doing so, Matter into Matter interrogates now what the staircase is but what it does as a means of highlighting the systems and forces embedded within its form.
These systems, rooted in Cartesian thought and enmeshed with the cultural-material history of former Yugoslavia, reflect rationalist approaches to design and production that have characterised post-war architectural and infrastructural approaches. Matter into Matter exposes the underlying frameworks that prioritise efficiency, standarisation, and permanence, while also acknowledging the socio-political contents in which such structures were conceived and placed in the world.
The work invites reflection on how these material legacies persist and interact with the present, shaping not only physical spaces, but also the ways in which they are experienced and understood at the position of the everyday.
Rather than attempting to imbue the stairway with agency or animation in the tradition of Vitalism, the work emphasises its emeddedness within broader systems of logic and control. The stairway is not an isolated system, instead being one of interrelation, influence and intentionality that is reflected in the sonic translation. The sound expression renders these systems audible, offering sensory engagement with the often imperceptible processes that underpin the construction of concrete environments that have become a natural logic.
Curatorial note: This work was designed to be played as a digital track through speakers in front of an amphitheater-style seating arrangement of marquee white resin chairs to heighten a sense of spectatorship. Due to the nature of the sound, the work is best played at set times for an audience, but can also be set on a loop. Other formats are possible in consultation with curators, such as allowing audiences to listen to the concrete while lying on sheet concrete panels arranged in a grid.
