AUDIOS SPACE SOUNDING FUTURE

Launched in 1987, the Prix Ars Electronica is the world’s most prestigious and time-honored award for media art. Presented annually, it comprises several categories that highlight and reflect current developments in art, technology, and socio-political discourse.

Winners are selected by an international jury of experts, awarded the coveted Golden Nica and prize money, and prominently featured at the Ars Electronica Festival.

In addition to honoring established artists, the Prix Ars Electronica also serves as a launchpad for emerging talents and pioneers—offering space for new perspectives and innovative practices at the intersection of art, technology, science, and civil society. Since its inception, Prix Ars Electronica has functioned as a global trend barometer, continuing to expand its network of new artists and serving as the driving force behind the Ars Electronica creative ecosystem.

https://audiospace.soundingfuture.com/curated/ars-electronica/collections/main-collection

Vis.[un]necessary force_4 is a sound work adapted from an installation originally conceived for multi-channel spatial listening. It is based on field recordings made while accompanying Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte, a collective of women in northern Mexico who search for relatives who were forcibly disappeared. The recordings were made during a full day of searching with Las Rastreadoras in February 2019, on the outskirts of Los Mochis, Sinaloa.

Mexico is living through an ongoing human rights crisis of enforced disappearance. The country’s official registry records more than 130,000 disappeared and unlocated persons. Enforced disappearance, when committed in a widespread or systematic manner, may constitute a crime against humanity.

The work presents an aural field of voices, environmental sounds, and the material actions of the search itself. The installation unfolds in three sections, each activated by visitors through an electronic touch interface. In its exhibition form, the work invites an intimate and spatially grounded mode of listening; here, presented in Sounding Future’s 3D AudioSpace, it is reconfigured for the platform while retaining the affective and sonic force of the original piece.

Vis.[un]necessary force_4 received an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2021 in Digital Musics & Sound Art.

Special thanks to: Mirna Medina and Rastreadoras de El Fuerte.

Credits Author/Artist/Composer: Luz María Sánchez. Sound preparation for Sounding Future / Ars Electronica 3D AudioSpace: Frank Ekeberg. Sound editing and mixing: Luz María Sánchez / Josué Martínez / Frank Ekeberg. Field recordings: Luz María Sánchez / Josué Martínez. Research coordinator: Ana Paula Sánchez-Cardona. Video documentation: Fernando González Buenrostro. Production: Luz María Sánchez / Studio LMS. The project was made with the support of Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, the National System of Art Creators, Mexico’s Ministry of Culture, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC). Special thanks to: Mirna Medina and Rastreadoras de El Fuerte, Amanda de la Garza, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Carolina Robledo (GIASF), Jacobo Dayán, José Luis Aguilera Velasco, and Ryszard W. Kluszczyński. Cover image: Vis.[un]necessary force_04. Luz María Sánchez. Documentation of the solo exhibition In the Absence of the State, 24 May–7 July 2024. Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań. Photo: Jakub Krzyżanowski.