CD – Denovali
The reactive flow of elements in Quintesence symbolises subconscious and psychic elements for Donoso, telling a story of how memory is often disorientated and fragmented. The piece was developed in a complex installation made in a residency at the Société des arts technologiques [SAT] in Montreal, in 2015, together with multimedia artist Florence To. The two experimenters have incorporated 157 speakers and a very sophisticated surround sound system in a dome. There is an awareness that physical sensations can be induced through sounds and visual perceptions, without constraints that limit our emotions, creating a suitable space where the audience will be encouraged to develop a strong engagement. The dome is 18 metres in diameter and 11.5 to 13m high, the projection screen is 360-degree spherical. The performance space can house up to 350 visitors. The sound system is comprised of 157 speakers in clusters of four around the perimeter of the dome, giving a surround sound of 39.4 channels. Donoso has chosen to implement for this purpose a soundtrack that incorporated in itself both techniques of contemporary classical composition and typical knowledge of sound system culture (the latter are less recognisable at a listen on CD but that they are a constituent part of the original project). The album boasts a fully digital production but the author interrogates the natural world and human relations with this. It is unsurprising then that he embraces very ancestral influences, almost mythological. Who is really contemporary is who does not coincide perfectly with his time or adapts his claims and he is therefore, in this sense, outdated.” This quote from philosopher Giorgio Agamben reflects the “outdated” (or “timeless”) nature of many steps in this project, where – decisively – deciphering these elements can become an additional incentive in the reshaping our senses, waiting for that new society that we still cannot know.

 

Ricardo Donoso – Quintesence