Dark Ecology is informed by the idea that ecology is 'dark' (as the American theorist Timothy

Morton has argued), because it invites - or demands - that we think about our intimate
interconnections with, for instance, iron ore, snowflakes, plankton, or radiation... Ecology
does not privilege the human, it is not something beautiful, and it has no real use for the old
concept of Nature. What we now know about the impact of human beings on the planet has
led to the need to rethink the concepts of nature and ecology, and exactly how humans are
connected to the world. This rethinking occurs in philosophy as well as in the arts.
https://www.darkecology.net/about

And the word itself reverberates across other meanings and fields such as in mechanics,
crystallography, mathematics, and mycology and runs through music, noise, quotidian life
practices, literature, astronomy, sociology, and chemistry. Resonance is also a signifier for
the transmission of feeling, thought, senses, and memory. Moving between and beyond
genres, media, disciplines, politics, and affects, resonance is constant tessellation and
oscillation.
FORMLESS FORMATION, p10

Dark Resonances: absorbed, diffused, fortified

About Psycho-Active Acoustics (Resorption)
knowbotiq/Y 10/21
WORKING DOSSIER

This techno-ecological project tries to approach a hybrid landscape that can hardly articulate itself. What
happens when you put a transmitter in the middle of a natural landscape that is, however, diseased by high-
tech agriculture and by means of production for renewable energies. It's nonsense to look for lost nature
here, because the Altmark (here) has always been a neglected hinterland. The backstage for urban
performances in the metropolises.
Here, for the time being, is a still isolated prototype of an inverted acoustic box, its doors and windows
open, producing polluted sound that is continuously transmitted and simultaneously received.
A flow heater that takes equal account of and interweaves materialities and imaginaries of a "Dark
Ecology".
This project takes on a techno-political environment
and attempts to call up those other ima- ginations
that are beyond a
Stop the "back to nature" narrative.

We focus on the molecular structure, which not only

wants to convey itself visually, but to address the
invisible aggregate states of an environment that is
constantly at molecular war.
This continuous production, expenditure,
decomposition and renewal of biomass seemingly
follows principles that have moved humans into the
centre. But in itself it is only a permanent state of
crisis. My son can't enter the garden because he
immediately has allergic reactions that make him
sneeze all the time, because his body obviously
rejects the pollen of the mugwort that blooms
everywhere without being asked. The grove, which
could actually provide shelter during hot summer
months, cannot be entered because the ash trees
originally settled there when their roots received the
necessary nutrients in the wet meadow, which has
now retreated due to permanent drought. Now the
root systems are rotting and you can hear the
martial crash of the falling trees almost every day.
The two pictures show parts of our garden. A garden that looks unkempt because it is full of weeds. Here.
Tansy, yarrow, thistles, nettles and various grasses. We let them grow because they are the only source of
food for many insects in the agricultural monocultures and disciplined gardens of the surrounding area. The
research shows that the wild flora is made up of known and very vulgar nitrogenous vectors. Plants that grow
so well because the soil has too much nutrients.
This phenomenon is called eutrophication. This generally refers to the accumulation of nutrients in an
ecosystem or part of it. It is already suspected. The phenomenon is man-made. It is the "undesirable increase
of nutrients in a water body and the associated useless and harmful growth of plants", promoted by an
increased nutrient content (nitrogen and phosphorus) of water bodies, caused by the inflow of nutrients
from waste water as well as by input from intensively fertilised agricultural land. The eutrophication of a
water body causes an increase in its primary production, which results in increased oxygen depletion. The
soil suffocates in exhaustion.
The landscape that appears so green is therefore a necropolitical landscape.

Especially the weeds grow strongly and cause humans to massively poison their own environment.
Glyphosate promises to prevent unwanted plant growth, especially of the so-called weeds. A lot of
technological and chemical know-how from the agricultural industry and agricultural research institutions
accompanies the farmer in his work. The knowledge that in earlier times weeds served as food, medicinal
and shamanic plants is mostly ignored.
into the niches of the eco- and esoteric scene. Even though ethnobotany is also researching more and more in
Central European resources.
If one wants to see the weeds, no the by- weeds as the food, healing and shamanic plants, then one perceives
how powerful these plants are and what molecular potential they possess.
The weed that grows so unashamedly here in the agricultural Altmark. Transformation of biomass.
Collecting herbs as an activity with mostly feminine connotations.

- Tansy: camphor, thujone and borneol = intoxicating

- Mugwort: Falvonoids, camphor, sesquiterpenes, thujone and triterpenes = psychedelic effect,
stimulating, aphrodisiacs, mind-altering.
- Yarrow: sesquiterpenes, ketones, monoterpenes, monoterpenols, esters, oxides = sedative, anxiety-
relieving, harmonising, spirit-clearing and intuition-enhancing.
- Black nightshade: Alkaloids solanine, solaceine, solanein, tannins = anxiety, cramps and paralysis; against
electrosmog
- Hops: Humulon and Lupulon = against sleep disorders, restlessness or anxiety disorders.
- Bird's knotweed: silicic acid (partly also water-soluble), tannins (gallotannins and catechin tannins),
flavonoids, especially avicularin, phenolic carboxylic acids and mucilage.
- St. John's wort: hyperforin = increases the concentration of the neurotransmitters serotonin and
noradrenaline at the synapses by inhibiting their reuptake.
- green elderberry: Sambunigrin = cramps and diarrhoea
- Poppy: Morphine
Collecting and Drying of the Weed: Rain Fern (top), Black Nightshade (bottom)
Wild carrot and green elderberry (top), bird's knotweed (bottom)
Principle of ornamentation
Wall ornament with the Weed Tiles inside the soundbox
The pattern quotes the tiles of the entrance to the Gründerzeit building in whose garden the sound room is
located.
My sister points out a term to me: The atropaic signs. Signs that are supposed to ward off evil. Would it be
daring to suggest that the pattern of tiles in the hallway are rudimentary remnants of an atropaic ornament?
Are the tiles supposed to protect the house from uninvited guests, to mislead ghosts and spirits if they try
to follow you into the house?
The question that arises for the project. Is there an acoustic analogy to this visual approach?

Perhaps the arc is too large: but I

have been accompanied for
decades by a small booklet from
my mother. It describes the
meanings of the shapes used in
the wooden panels that my
mother received as a wedding
present from her mother. Today
they stand in my living room and
I am embarrassed for the
moment of cultural
appropriation they convey. Even
if it was three generations ago.
But the coincidence of the forms
is astounding.
The wall panels work against the conventional studio practices, in which the acoustics try to achieve the most
re-contaminated sound possible with absorbers, e.g. made of nap foam (left).
This dimpled foam, which lines almost all audio boxes, speaker booths, rehearsal rooms, etc., is ubiquitous
and widespread. The qualities of nap foam are as follows: Suitable for acoustic room optimisation, skin-
friendly, allergy-friendly, breathable, resistant to cleaning.
Safe against mould and dust mites, minimal sorption moisture, tested for harmful substances, no chemicals,
Oeko-Tex certified, efficient with the best insulation properties, materials flame retardant in accordance
with B1 to DIN 4102 Part 1, BS 5852-P2, California Norm etc. So tested risk-free.

So what if you want exactly the opposite: an acoustic wall that absorbs, diverts, amplifies, contaminates
resonances? What if you want wall panels that are made of organic material, that not only absorb the waves
and vibrations, but also absorb the molecular structure of the sound?

Here, the concept of ornamentation is perhaps interesting. An anti-functional design principle that gives
space to uncontrolled organic processes. A sound can hide in the panels, absorb the micro-organic processes
and remain there until it wants to interfere again.
not valid here

adapted version of the definition of psychacoustics

Design of the specific sound room in Jeetze, Altmark
"Soundscape ecologists also study the relationships between the three basic sources of sound that comprise
the soundscape: those generated by organisms are referred to as the biophony; those from non-biological
natural categories are classified as the geophony, and those produced by humans, the anthropophony."
This means: Noise is welcome, Nonhumans- on air, Listening is Participating and forms an Aesthetic
Acoustic Sociality?

The local sounds have access to the studio and unfold their own sound image:
Components of the soundscpaes in Jeetze /Altmark are:
The daily programme of birds and their communication / The machine noises of large-scale agricultural
equipment / The continuous barking of the psychotic neighbour's dog / The ultrasound of military
helicopters during manoeuvres of the Altmark troop training area in the Colbitz-Letzlinger Heath
/ T h e hum of the neighbours' ride-on lawnmower / The hooting of the barn owls on the hunt / The
clamour of the nearby kindergarten / The rhythmic infrasound of the wind turbines / The rustling of the
wind in the leaves of the endangering trees / The donkey that brays because no one plays with it / The
neighbours' fence calls / The rattle of the hedgehog on its evening walk.

But the location is contaminated: The sound from the garden comes in through the open windows and
doors. But the loudspeakers play the sound of the other sound boxes and lead it out. Sound material from
Quibdo is sent into the space in Altmark, becomes audible there, mixes with the local sounds and can then
be heard enriched in Pico, Berlin and elsewhere. Acoustic circulations are created...
The different partners are part of a network. The content and programming of the radio broadcasts is
determined by the respective partners. Formats are diverse: live field recordings, talks, monologues, music
etc...one after the other, simultaneously, linguistically, noisily etc... but always affecting and discursive.

A number of hybrid studios are being set up that do not want to isolate sound production from any context
with high technology. These studios are open studios that are not only here and not only now. The project is
a network of ornamental sound structures. Acoustic events are sent and received simultaneously. Digitally
distributed sounds, noises, sound contributions, conversations mix with the acoustic events of the local.
Several open sound spaces are planned: Altmark (outlined here), Pico (Azores), Berlin, Quibdó (Colombia),
Geneva. There will always be programme points that will be advertised.
Planned programme of the Soundraum Jeetze

November: Radio Kal / District Berlin (Altmark) (the trap of the transcultural?)
December: Mercurybodies (Quibdo) (translocal materialities / remote sensations)
January: Wale-Radio (Pico) (animistic encounters)
February: philanthropic desire (Genève) (how to escape the philanthropic?)
March: SF Altmark (the peripheral as an ornamental line)

Could this old cistern in Pico be the next resonance chamber? What
would be the undesirable plants on site. Which orna- ment imposes
itself. And who articulates?
Literature:

Alexandra Hui: Nature Conservation Radio, Part of "The Ear Man", Lecture, Nov 2, 2018
https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/veranstaltung/p_144503.php

https://ik-ptz.ru/de/exam-tests ---2017-math/osnovnye-svedeniya-iz-akustiki-teoriya-zvuka-i-akustiki-pony-
atnym.html

https://sustainablemusic.blogspot.com/2021/

https://www.communitiesinmovement.net/events.php?event=214

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwhJkGkbfBs

Social Acoustics, Bergen

https://www.uib.no/en/socialacoustics

https://eventalaesthetics.net/vol-6-no-1-2017-sound-art-environment/

Formless Formations
https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/formlessformation-web.pdf Formless
Formation is an experimental project conceived and co-authored by two performance theorists
working in critical aesthetics and political thought. The book is an insurgent revolt, walking side by side with
plural and planetary anticolonial forces organising against debt, expropriative extractive capital, environ-
mental catastrophe, and the militarised policing of people and borders. It is in direct conversation with all
Indigenous, Black, Brown, ecological, queer, diasporic movements and struggles against capitalist predatory
formations.

Aesthetic Sociality
Laura Harris: Experiments in Exile

https://soundstudiesblog.com/2018/02/26/botanical-rhythms-a-field-guide-to-plant-music/

The World Soundscape Prroject: http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio-webdav/index2.html

R Murray, The music of the environment, 1973.

Handbook of Acoustic Ecology: http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio-webdav/handbook/index.html

Federal Institute for Risk Assessment: Questions and answers on nitrate and nitrite in food
https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/343/fragen-und-antworten-zu-nitrat-und-nitrit-in-lebensmitteln.pdf