მთის ხმა (the sound of the mountain)

What lies hidden in these mountains, underneath their green, velvet mantle? How can I get them to speak to me? მთის ხმა (mtis khma; Georgian, the sound of the mountain) is a work that concludes a research into the audification of mountains ranges, aiming to to uncover what lies hidden in the mountains. For the work, the mountains of the Greater Caucasus in the Tusheti region in Georgia are given a voice by taking the outline of the mountain range and converting this line into an audible waveform. The sound is then compressed and expanded, simulating the movements of the mountains in its million year formation, generating a vast sonic landscape. The original sound is then reinserted into the sonic landscape, symbolising the rugged peaks of the original landscape. The title of the work refers to the book The Sound of the Mountain (1953) by Yasunari Kawabata. In the book, Kawabata describes the sound of the mountain as “it was like wind, far away, but with a depth like a rumbling of the earth”. The quote, translated to Georgian, can be heard alongside the coordinates where the source material was collected. The accompanying graphic sees photos taken during the creation of the work in Tusheti slowly fading into abstraction, outlined by the original soundwave. 

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with special thanks to
aqtushetii