Kat was invited to be one of the 30 artists contributing to this momentous celebration of 30 years of the marvellous Neural Magazine and 20 years of the great Crónica music label.
Natural rhythms are key to Kat’s compositions, which are often led by emerging rhythms from soundscapes in which she immerses herself during field recording research.
Challenged with producing a track of only 9s in length for the 30+20 album, published on flexidisc along with Neural issue 74, Kat leverages the synergy between music and mathematics, focussing on evolving rhythm. For Golden Acceleration, Kat created a track that increases its rhythm according to the golden ratio. Using field recorded samples edited for aesthetics and effect, the piece evolves through 9 until the gap between the tones is no longer perceptible.
What does it look like when art, science and policy meet?
A wealth of art + science projects are addressing topics of environmental importance. The cutting-edge ideas and experiments from the field hold great potential for transforming policy – but how does the message get across? How does art+science intersect with policy?
In “The Art + Science + Policy Nexus”, I explore the way that transdisciplinary projects intersect with policy and policymakers. Commissioned by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service and edited by Caterina Benincasa in the context of JRC’s SciArt programme with Adriaan Eeckels.
Kat will headline the Leaky Earth programme at Technische Sammlung Dresden with The Matter of the Soul | Symphony. For this special performance, Kat has invited Korean media artist Dongjoo Seo to perform live visuals drawing on explorations of mining landscapes and transformation of bodies. The evening begins with screenings of films by the inimitable Rosa Barba.
How can citizen science transform scientific research practice? In our new paper, we identify six ways that involving citizens in research can improve the way we do science.
Time to Break Down (Echoes of the Palaeoplasticene) in 2024 Cultural Olympics Exhibition Program The Fabulous Stories to Save the Green Planet 10th January – 1st February 2024 Location: Sea Gallery, Gyeongpo Beach, Gangneung, KR
Opening 10th January on the occasion of the 2024 Youth Winter Olympics in Republic of Korea Gangwon Province, a new site specific installation of Time to Break Down (Echoes of the Palaeoplasticene) at the Sea Gallery in Gangneung. The work includes a very special soundscape using audio recorded in an abandoned shaft #850 in Samtan Art Mine, Taebaek, KR
Time to Break Down (Echoes of the Palaeoplasticene) is situated in the Palaeoplasticene speculative past and inspired by the scientific method of taphonomy, which looks at how bodies decay in the natural environment. For Palaeoplasticence, the method of taphonomy is applied to 3D printed PLA mushrooms, exploring what evolutionary advantage there would be to a mushroom if it had evolved to grow from plastic. The site specific installation for the 4th Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games joins four ongoing Palaeoplasticene taphonomy installations in Berlin, Germany; Helsinki, Finland; Dublin, Ireland and Gijon, Spain.
Accompanied for this site specific installation by a soundscape drawing links between fossil fuel extraction and the slow process of the break down of plastic, Time to Break Down (Echoes of the Palaeoplasticene) helps us to realize that the enduring legacy of man-made objects like the plastic will bring about changes affecting both human and non-human beings.
Credits Artist: Kat Austen Initial concept: Kat Austen in collaboration with Indrė Žliobaitė, Laurence Gill Production: Ars Electronica Andrew Newman Palaeoplasticene was realised within the framework of the STUDIOTOPIA program at Ars Electronica Linz GmbH & Co KG with support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union.
This site specific edition of Time to Break Down (Echoes of the Palaeoplasticene) includes field recordings from Samtan Art Mine, Gangwon Province, thanks to Director Whasoon Son and with the support of Dongjoo Seo.
Exhibition opening ceremony at 14:00 on 10th January.
The 20 channel video installation This Land is Not Mine will be exhibited as a solo show at the new gallery of Cinémathèque in Leipzig. A complementary programme of events is planned under the name Łuža throughout the month of November, starting with the This Land is Not Mine | Album performance on 3. Nov for the exhibition opening.
Opening 19th October until 22nd October S-Factory D, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
“When I was a child, there were dragonflies everywhere.” The summer heat is smothering us as the group of elders shelter in the shadow of the Wondumak gazebo next to the village hall. One person proffers a folded over toilet paper, which I unfold to reveal a petrified, decomposing stagbeetle. The wooden shelter, so necessary in these hot summer months, lies on a track out of the village. Almost immediately beyond, the buildings give way to an incline tracing the bank of a dry riverbed up to terraced rice fields; the Gudeuljang.
These Gudeuljang secured Korea the country’s first ever globally important agricultural heritage site. The rice here is formed without pesticides, using traditional method that date back to the 1600s. The terraces of the Gudeuljang contain a network of underground channels, which feed mountain rainwater to the crops. Farmers control the flow by moving stones to stem the water, allowing it to warm in the sun before letting it into the fields. Many of fields at higher altitudes are out of use now, the crucial channels collapsing into themselves. Farmers know what’s happening higher up the mountainside from the changing behaviour of water in the fields they tend. Compared to other landscapes, dragonflies thrive here in this pesticide-free rural idyll. Yet even here the dragonflies are fewer, and come at different times of year than before.
People notice the change from their childhood. “It used to be a game when we were kids, we would catch the dragonflies in our hands and hold them their wings feel like paper like the Hanji in my grandparents doors. Crinkly but strong. Now you just don’t see them so much anymore.”
This year I’ve seen none of the swarms I saw last year. I hear the hum of traffic from the top of the hill. The smoke turns the blue sky yellow. I reach out my hand into the open air, against the sunshine, and I return to a hillside where the trees have grown back; they were felled for survival in desperate times. Now what threatens the humans here is an exodus. I wouldn’t mind moving to Cheongsan-do for awhile. I’d even like the experience of farming but as a foreigner, I wasn’t permitted to hire a car. There are various things that make a landscape in hospitable. We didn’t have so many dragonflies where I grew up. Now I’m somewhere the way they belong but I’m in the wrong time. Which begs the question: how do you touch a dragonfly that isn’t there?
Artist: Kat Austen Designer: Robin Andersson (RTA Studio) Digital Artist: Daniel Hengst Creative Technologist: Justus Erhas Production Director: Frank Lohmoeller Production Manager: Olive Okjoh Han Production Assistance: Hyeonhwa Lee Additional Filming: Sangwon Lee Hanji Funding: Jeonju Millenium Hanji Museum (전주천년한지관) Supported by: ZER01NE Creator’s Programme (Hyundai Motor Group) Thanks to: UN FAO KR, GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Site) Cheongsan-do, R. Glowinski