Tini Aliman is a sound artist who lives and works in Singapore. She has been involved in projects, performances and exhibitions presented at National Gallery Singapore, NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Biennale Urbana at Caserma Pepe, Venice, Singapore Art Museum and SFMOMA.
Discipline
multimedia and sound art
I am a sound artist and designer, field recordist and audio engineer who works at the intersection of theatre and film sound design, live sound art performance, installation and collaborative projects. My research interests include but are not limited to, forest networks, spatial acoustics, bio-music, botanical histories and the variables of data translations via biodata sonification.
Year of participation
2023
During my residency at Ludwig Forum Aachen, I intend to explore my ongoing research interests in forest networks, spatial acoustics, bio-music, botanical histories and the variables of data translations via biodata sonification. For this proposed project, I am interested to draw from the idea and image of the ecotone; the transitional area between two ecosystems, with one area having greater organism density than the flanking community. These include boundary regions, borders, meeting zones, transitional zones, tension zones, zones of intermingling, and zones of transgression. Species richness, diversity and abundances tend to peak in ecotonal areas. Ecotones may also be speciation hotspots where new forms evolve. Connectivity within either ecotonal scale can be defined as the rate at which organisms, organic matter, nutrients, and energy traverse the ecotones between adjacent ecological units. In relation to sound, the conflict created by the dissonance generates tension and movement in music. Dissonance in music is when two or more tones occur at the same time and create a discordant or clashing sound. Sounds which are not notated appear in written music as silences, opening doors to sounds which appear in the environment, the same openness that appears in sculptures and architecture. The countermelody is written in the middle of a major theme to be played or sung in a contrasting manner, or disharmony. I am keen to create a musical memory and symbolism from sounds of my own recollection of these subject matter, where I let go of all fixations and methods and let the movement of the musical imagery flow and progress with more emotions, meaning and mostly instinctual intuitions. Where two ecosystems overlapped and tensioned, a new form evolved in a single ecotone. Avoiding structure, I would like to acknowledge that we have different musical associations, recollections and fragments. Taking a departure point from the city of Aachen, where The Ludwig Forum is situated and the theme surrounding Borderlands Residencies programme, I am keen to explore spatial acoustics, bio-music, botanical histories, and the variables of data translations via biodata sonification, and for the work to reimagine the relationships across space, memory, time, environment and the senses.